The Second Chance
by MasterTrident
Summary: Zoë Nightshade dies at the hands of her father and makes Percy swear an oath. Percy is betrayed by Annabeth but saved by Luke whom willingly sacrifices himself to end Kronos. Percy receives a powerful weapon as payment from his patron for being part of yet another great prophecy. A VERY powerful weapon. Read Author's Note at the end before beginning.
1. 1: A Friend Says Goodbye

_(AN) Before I start I would like people to know that the first chapter pulls a lot from the actual book Percy Jackson : The Titan's Curse. It's more adjustments by me to an already great chapter but I just wanted to get certain things into it. After that I will be writing from the top of my head. Oh yea and this is my first FanFic so good luck me! I know how annoying it is when people abandon stories. I can't guarantee anything about long waits though. I tend to write fast but at my age in London, exams are freaking stressful. This is more a way to relieve some of that stress for me as I just love creative writing and Percy Jackson is a great series. Sorry if I bored you but just some info :).  
_ _As Per Usual I do not own not hold any rights to Percy Jackson or Heroes of Olympus. Those belong to Rick Riordan (rather sadly cause he ruined the last book in HoO).  
_ _Enough with my rambling and onto the story. (/AN)_

Chapter 1: A Friend Says Goodbye

Percy POV

"Thou were right Perseus. Though art no —" Zoë coughed violently spitting out blood, "Thou art no Heracles."

I looked at Zoe and opened my mouth to say something, but couldn't bring myself to say anything.

"Thou does not need to say anything Perseus." She said before I made a fool of myself. She turned to Artemis," Milady, I thank thee for this great life. No one lasts forever, I am off to be with the rest of our sisters, those of whom we've lost over the years. Tell the hunters that they were a good family." Artemis smiled sadly.

"And Percy," I looked up in surprise that she did call me Perseus, "thank you, for helping me see, that not all men are bad, even if most are. I am honored that you should carry my sword. If anything should happen to Thalia, I hope thou uses thy sword to defeat Kronos. I know thou can do it. Please, Perseus, do me that honor and let it be the sword that I made that defeats him." She said pleadingly.

"I will Zoë, I owe you that much. I swear it on the River Styx, that it shall be your sword that slays Kronos" I said to her and she smiled gratefully.

She looked at the sky and whispered, "Stars, I can see the stars again, my lady"

A tear trickled down Artemis' face, "Yes my brave one, they are beautiful tonight."

"Stars." She repeated. Her eyes fixated on the night sky.

She did not move again.

Thalia lowered her head. Annabeth gulped down a sob, and her father put his hands on her shoulders. I watched as Artemis cupped her hand above Zoë's mouth and spoke a few words in Ancient Greek. A silvery wisp of smoke exhaled from Zoë's lips and was caught in the hand of the goddess. Zoë's body shimmered and disappeared.

Artemis stood, said a kind of blessing, breathed into her cupped hand and released the silver dust to the sky. It flew up, sparkling, and vanished.

For a moment I didn't see anything different. Then Annabeth gasped. Looking up in the sky, I saw that the stars were brighter now. They made a pattern I had never noticed before—a gleaming constellation that looked a lot like a girl's figure—a girl with a bow, running across the sky.

"Let the world honor you, my Huntress," Artemis said. "Live forever in the stars."

"I get back to Olympus, I have a winter solstice meeting to attend to, I can't take you but I will send you help." Artemis said to us between sniffs. Her form was flickering and I was getting worried that she might let her true form slip accidentally and vaporize us all.

"Hey Artemis," I said in as soothing a tone as I could muster, "don't worry about her, she is in Elysium now, with all the friends she's lost over the years."

She smiled sadly and nodded her head. She snapped her fingers and a chariot pulled by reindeers appeared in the sky and moved in their direction coming from the moon.

When it arrived she mounted it and readied herself to take off but stopped herself and looked at me. "Percy, you did well… for a man" The chariot began to glow and we averted our eyes. There was a silver flash and when we looked back she was gone.

"Well," Dr. Chase sighed. "She was impressive; though I must say I still prefer Athena."

"Dad!"

"Relax, I was joking, I know who she is." He said trying to lighten the mood but Annabeth just rolled he eyes and glared at him.

 _YO BOSS!_ I heard Blackjack call and I groaned internally but smirked. He never was going to stop calling me boss.

I turned around and shouted back, "Hey Blackjack! Stop calling me Boss!" The others looked at me strangely, probably where Blackjack was.

 _Whatever you say Boss!_ He called back and I rolled my eyes. As they got closer the everyone else heard the whoosh of large wings. Three pegasi descended from the sky.

 _Hey Boss!_ The other two pegasi said to me at the same time.

Blackjack looked me over with concern, then checked out Dr. Chase, Thalia, and Annabeth. _Any of these goons you want us to stampede?_

"Nah," I said aloud. "These are my friends. We need to get to Olympus pretty fast."

 _No problem_ , Blackjack said. _Except for the mortal over there. Hope he's not going._

I assured him Dr. Chase was not. The professor was staring openmouthed at the pegasi.

"Fascinating," he said. "Such maneuverability! How does the wingspan compensate for the weight of the horse's body, I wonder?"

Blackjack cocked his head. _What?_

"Dad!" Annabeth complained. I would have thought that Dr. Chase were a son of Athena were if it were not for Annabeth's existence.

"Oh sorry, I do that sometimes. Well, you guys must be off." Dr Chase said before giving Annabeth an awkward but well meant hug. I chuckled internally as I could see why Athena had taken a liking to him. "Annabeth, I know San Francisco is dangerous for you, but please remember you will always have a home with us. We will keep you safe."

Annabeth turned away and mounted Porkpie not responding. Dr Chase made as if to say something but thought better of it and instead waved his hand before trudging across the dark field. Thalia mounted Guido whilst I got on Blackjack and we all flew off towards Olympus.

"Luke isn't dead you know." Annabeth said to me as we glided.

"Look Annabeth I hate to break it to you but there's no way he survived that fall. Besides how would you know?"

"I just do!" Annabeth snapped, "Okay? Just like how you knew I wasn't dead."

I just sighed with a bit of disappointment as I looked up at Zoë's constellation. As we soared through the night sky I continued to stare at the constellation wondering how things could have gone differently and saved both Bianca and Zoë's life.

" _BIANCA_ , _Oh crap how am I going to tell Nico,"_ I thought to myself. My whole purpose being here was to protect her.

I banged my head lightly and repeatedly against the pommel of Anaklusmos slowly getting harder with each hit. It seemed to disturb Thalia and Annabeth as they stared at me. "Is something wrong Kelp Head? Last time I checked you didn't have the brain cells to spare to be doing that." She joked trying to lighten the mood but I just gave her a withering look before letting out a sigh and staring back up at the constellation.

"I'm sorry Zoë, I'm such a failure." I muttered to the constellation of Zoë in particular, not really intending either Annabeth or Thalia to hear, but of course knowing my luck they just had to. Thalia purposely rode up to me and slapped me upside of my head.

"You're not a failure you stupid Kelp Head," she said but I just stared off into the night sky, wishing that I could believe that were true. "You made a promise to Zoë. And I intend to make sure you keep it."

"But how, your _sixteenth_ birthday is tomorrow. You're the child of the prophecy, I swore an oath that I can't keep, now I'm doomed to die and burn for the rest of eternity in the River Styx." I retorted knowing full well what the consequences of breaking an oath on the River Styx were. Thalia just smirked and winked at me before drifting off to sleep, leaving Annabeth and I in silence.

The landscape zipped by and within half an hour we had arrived at New York. Now most people would call me crazy when I say this but believe me, There is a mountain on top of the Empire State. Right there, in plain sight, where everyone can see it. That is, if they know what to look for and how to see it.

"You don't believe me about Luke," Annabeth said, "but we'll see him again. He's in trouble, Percy. He's under Kronos's spell."

I didn't feel like arguing, though it made me mad. How could she still have any feelings for that creep? How could she possibly make excuses for him? He deserved that fall. He deserved to die. Unlike Bianca. Unlike Zoë. Luke couldn't be alive. It wouldn't be fair.

"There it is." Thalia's voice; she'd woken up. She was pointing toward Manhattan, which was quickly zooming into view. "It's started."

"What's started?" I asked.

Then I looked where she was pointing. High above the Empire State Building, Olympus was its own island of light, a floating mountain ablaze with torches and braziers, white marble palaces gleaming in the early morning air.

"The winter solstice," Thalia said. "The Council of the Gods."


	2. 2: Redemption and Betrayal

Chapter 2: Redemption and Betrayal

Percy's POV

I rolled out of the way of a devastating swipe from the scythe only to be kicked in the back as I stood up. I lay sprawled on the ground ready to give up as coughed violently and spat out blood. As iI was about to give up I was about to give up when I remembered all the lives that were sacrificed so that I could get to where I am and kill Kronos.

My mother was the first, she sacrificed ten years of her life living with that loser Gabe to mask my scent so that I could live my first twelve years of life without having to run away from monster (even though Gabe was a monster in his own way).

Beckendorf sacrificed a great future and life with his girlfriend on that ship so that I could get off. He was planning on heading off to University after this war, except he died that day on that ship, he died a hero.

Silena nobly joined her boyfriend, pretending to be Clarisse and leading the Ares cabin to war. Dying to the Lydian Drakon so that reinforcements could get to us. She may have been spying for Kronos at first but she righted her wrongs and was able to be rejoined with Beckendorf in Elysium.

Those were to name but two sacrifices. Most of our small defense force had ascended to Elysium in such a short space of time.

There was Zoë back at Mount Tamalpais. _Zoë_. She was the bravest. She knew she was going to die but she still went on the quest. It was undeniable that I had feelings for her even if it would have been impossible due to her being in the hunt. Now isn't the time to dwell on thoughts of her. I promised Zoë that I would defeat Kronos with her sword.

I slowly but surely picked myself off the ground. I would honor my promises. I never wanted to break another promise after what happened to Bianca. I grasped Anaklusmos in my hand pivoted on the ball of my foot to deliver a powerful slash at Kronos.

"Such courage and bravery, you would have been a better host and an even greater ally. You willingly took the curse of Achilles. I had to have my servants throw Luke in the river. I offer you another chance Jackson. Join me and we can rule the world together. I offer you immortality and you shall be the general of my armies. I offer the same Annabeth. Choose wisely because if you make the wrong choice, it shall be your end."

"Never!" I snarled before charging at Kronos and feinting a strike at his head. When he moved to parry the strike I lashed out with my foot and kicked him between the legs. With lightning quick succession I Sparta kicked Kronos in the chest sending him flying back into the throne of Ares. The war god's throne started crumbling as light flowed freely from cracks that were growing in size. I realized what was happening and quickly averted my eyes. There was a bright flash of red light and a moment later there was an earsplitting explosion.

All was silent.

I slowly turned around only to hear an earsplitting scream. I looked at Kronos and walked over to him. I lit my foot on fire and was about to kick him but stopped in shock that his eyes were blue.

"Percy, please. You were right. My Achilles point is —" Luke's eyes widened as he reached for the scythe. I raised my sword thinking he was going to attack me but quickly realised he was looking at what was behind me and I saw a shadow with a dagger raised behind me.

Annabeth.

It would be too late for me to do anything about it. Annabeth's dagger would strike. Luke lashed out with the weapon and the long blade impaled Annabeth between slicing through her bones, lung and heart like a knife through butter.

I looked at Luke in surprise at his sudden change of heart. The dagger fell out of her hand and bounced off my back dangerously close to my Achilles point.

"Why —"

"Look Percy i'm running out of time. My Achilles point is at my armpit. Please Perce. Put me out of this misery. Quick, Kronos is about to burst into true form. I'm fighting him for control over my body but my life will end either way. Either that evil bastard dies with me or I die and he destroys the world." Luke said all while unstrapping a special piece of armor that he must have had made to protect his Achilles point.

I looked at him feeling a tinge of sympathy. I aimed Anaklusmos at his armpit.

"Ready?"

"Ready." He said nodding his head. I closed my eyes and plunged the sword into his armpit. I felt the blade sink into his flesh. I opened my eyes and saw a his eyes glowing gold again. A wispy gold gas flowed from his eyes as the eyes slowly turned blue. The gas moved towards Anaklusmos. I panicked as I saw the sword absorbing the gas as like a sponge would a liquid. Once all the gas had left his eyes and entered the sword a gold powder began draining out of his eyes as pooling on the ground next to Luke's body.

"I will return, Jackson." Kronos choked out through Luke's body before the powder stream stopped.

"Percy," Luke croaked, "the gods, make them change their ways. Demigods deserve to be claimed and minor gods are treated terribly. Please, that's all I ask of you."

"I promise Luke. I will make them change. You're a good man Luke. I always told you that. You will go to Elysium. I'll make sure of it. You deserve it for fighting Kronos in the end. We couldn't win without you." I replied reassuringly

Luke smiled, "Tell my father I forgive him and I understand."

I smiled back to him before moving to get up but stopped when Luke began to speak again.

"Oh and Percy, thank you, for helping me see things clearly, I just wish we could have been on the same side as friends."

"Me too Luke. Goodbye my friend." Percy said earning a grateful smile from Luke. Luke's eyes rolled back and his head fell back with a smile still painted on his face. I reached down and closed his eyelids with my right hand while drawing two golden drachmas with my left a placed them, one on each eye.

Thalia walked in leaning on my patron Hestia right then and gasped when she saw me honoring Luke.

"Traitor!" She snarled while Hestia just smiled knowingly and nodded towards me. Thalia pulled the can of Mace out of her pocket and turned it into her spear.

"Whoah, Thalia I can explain –"

Go on, explain then, and I will decide how painful your death should be!" She growled, tears falling from her eyes as she looked at Annabeth's body angry that he honored Luke and not Annabeth.

"Hear him out" Hestia said simply as the Olympians teleported into the throne room and warily looked around expecting to have to fight something only to see Thalia leaning on Hestia and growling at me. I gulped noticeably.

"What is this!" Zeus shouted making me wince under the pure power that flowed from his words.

"He's a traitor." Thalia snarled. Zeus' eyes widened before he turned on me with a stormy expression that told me if I didn't choose my words carefully I would be his next victim.

"Is this true?" He growled with sparks flying off of him and the room smelled strongly of ozone.

"No! I'm not a traitor. Luke redeemed himself whilst Annabeth, "I pointed at her corpse, "Betrayed us!" I stuttered the whole thing out and probably looked as nervous as some people when lying.

"Liar!" Athena snapped before turning to Zeus, "My daughter is smart enough not to do that! Look at the way he trembles in fear! He is so obviously lying!"

Zeus raised the master bolt to smite me.

"Stop!" Both Hestia and Apollo shouted at the same time before Hestia continued. " He tells the truth. As his patron I was watching the entire battle. Kronos persuaded Annabeth to join his side. Luke was fighting Kronos mentally and managed to regain control of his body for a short time. He killed Annabeth before she could kill Percy. He then showed Perseus his weak point and let himself be killed. Luke was a hero in the end and should be arriving in Elysium sometime around now. And Athena, use that overly large brain of yours, what mortal wouldn't tremble in fear when they have the king of Olympus growling at them." Apollo just nodded. He is quite literally the world's best lie detector because of his status as god of truth.

Zeus looked disappointed that he couldn't shock anyone into oblivion today even though he already got enough of that from Typhon in one day. I then moved to pull out Anaklusmos but stopped when I saw the engravings on the sword glowing gold with power. It had never done that before. I shrugged and risked it. As soon as my hand touched the hilt a sharp pain shot through my body.

I couldn't let go and I screamed out as the pain were worse than being thrown into the Styx. My cries drew the attention of the gods again as Hestia, Poseidon and Apollo rushed to me. Then all the sudden the pain stopped.

I let go of the sword which still glowed gold with power and collapsed to the ground as everything went dark.

I awoke five minutes later to find myself lying by my patron's fire with Hestia poking at it. When she heard me moving her face snapped towards me and she dropped her stick and hugged me with a wide smile on her face.

"My champion awakes!" She cried out gleefully. You're probably wondering how she came to be my patron, well when I gave her pandora's pithos she was extremely happy that I trusted her that much. She asked me if I wanted to become her champion. Of course like any person in a right state of mind would do, he accepted. Hestia's probably the best patron to have as she has no children and she is the known to be the kindest goddess. What does that equate to? Lots and lots of gifts. But really having a patron is just generally helpful as it makes that particular god more free to help you without trouble from the ancient laws.

I stood up and looked around me to see all the Olympians seated and staring at me and looked behind me to see all the other demigods, nature spirits, minor gods, and others that fought for us seated on the ground. Hades was seated by the fire next to Hestia staring blankly into the hearth.

I gulped and bowed down on one knee in front of Zeus.

Everything was silent, except for the crackling of the fire.

It stayed that way for a few minutes and I was beginning to get really scared, nervous and anxious and my emotions were obvious. I felt all the eyes that bored into my soul. How my ADHD hadn't killed me yet I could never understand.

Suddenly the whole throne room burst into laughter and I looked around confused. Everyone and everything was laughing heartily. It was so loud that it seemed as if the room itself was chuckling. Zeus was the most hysterical of them all. I was surprised to see even Hades, the most grim god laughing.

"Sorry Perseus, But your just too funny when your anxious so we just let you stew a bit. Time to get this meeting started though." Zeus cleared his throat and the laughter died down, "We are come here today to discuss post-war precautions and the rest of that boring stuff. But first! I must thank my brothers Poseidon and Hades for it would have been … difficult"

"Difficult, brother?" Hades and Poseidon retorted at the same time.

Zeus sighed and muttered a curse in a mixture of Greek and Latin under his breath before correcting himself, "Impossible to win without."

"Talk about a huge ego huh?" Poseidon joked sending the gods into laughter however everyone else kept silent for fear of Zeus smiting them.

Zeus growled but continued. "First we shall reward the heroes who fought ever so valiantly in the war. Thalia Grace lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis, my daughter step forward."

Thalia nervously got up from where she sat, walked until she was in front of Zeus and dropped into a low bow.

"Rise daughter, for you I have decided to give you the choice of two gods to bless 2 weapons or weapon sets of your choice with they're godly powers, do you accept." Thalia's eyes widened and she grinned evilly. I winced, that look just meant that she has more ways to torture me when she visits camp.

"I would like my spear to be blessed by lady Hestia with fire and my hunting knives by Hypnos with sleep." Thalia said while beaming a pearly celebrity smile. I had to resist every fibre of my body to stop myself running away. Look at that, my name is Perseus Jackson, I defeated Kronos, but I'm terrified of my cousin. Well, I can't exactly go killing Thalia, can I?

"An interesting choice, may I ask why you want me to bless them though?" Hypnos inquired from where he sat with the minor gods.

"Because cuts made by sleep blessed knives should make the recipient of the cuts feel drowsy or even fall asleep." Thalia said grinning obviously proud that she came up with such a good idea.

"Hmm, I never thought of that. I guess that's because I never fight. Very well I will do it, but I can't guarantee it'll work that way." Hypnos smiled, happy that he was chosen as most minor gods are ignored.

"Hestia, Hypnos step forward. Thalia, if you would place the weapons on the ground in front of the gods of choice." Thalia unsheathed two arm-length hunting knives that originally belonged to Zoë Nightshade and placed them on the ground in front of Hypnos before pulling reaching into her pocket and elongating the mace canister into a spear and placing it in front of Hestia.

When the blessing were finished the spear was permanently engulfed in flames while the knives glowed silver and seemed to radiate an aura of sleepiness which Percy could feel from 5 feet away. Hypnos stepped back proud of the power that the weapons. Thalia hesitantly picked the weapons up and saw that the spear didn't burn her. She grinned evilly and winked at me.

"You forgot, I'm fireproof, my patron is Hestia you moron. And you call me a kelp head." Everyone laughed and Thalia looked aghast and her shoulders slumped.

As everyone laughed the Annabeth's betrayal finally hit home. After all we did together she tried to kill me. Sure I had feelings for her I'll admit and that just added to the pain.

"Now Perseus Jackson, step forward. You will be offered one gift and one gift only. And we know what you shall ask. If you accept, then you shall be made a god."


	3. 3: A Strange Arrival

(AN This is the rewritten chapter. Enjoy! /AN)

Chapter 3: A Strange 'New' Arrival

Hazel's POV

Some seventy or so years ago I died. You're probably wondering why the hell I'm in this story. Well, let me explain. I sacrificed Elysium so that my mother would not be sent to Punishment. Instead we were both placed in Asphodel to roam the land for the rest of eternity.

One day my half brother on my father's side found me in Asphodel as he was making his way through towards the Palace of Pluto. Knowing that I was a child of Pluto, he snuck me out and back into the realm of the living. Nico told me never to reveal who I am or what he had done to anyone or I would probably be sent back to Asphodel or maybe even Punishment for sneaking out and cheating death.

Nico dropped me off at the Wolf House and met the mother of Rome. Lupa helped to train me so that I would have some training to survive monsters on my way to New Rome and so that I stood a (rather meagre) chance in the tests which help Centurions determine whether or not they want me in their cohort. Sadly I was defeated by the very first Centurion and no one wanted me. Luckily I had a letter of reference from my half brother and was accepted into the Legion into the (worst) fifth cohort.

Right now I am on entrance guard detail with a blonde Son of Jupiter called Jason Grace. He was the Praetor of the twelfth legion after defeating the titan Krios on Mount Othrys a few months ago. Usually a Praetor doesn't need to do guard detail but he insisted, stating that it allows him some time to think.

I arrived at the Legion a month or so after the battle of Mount Othrys, which was a good thing as I probably would have just died again if I arrived before, which would be a very bad thing as I would have to face the judges… again.

I was brought out of my thoughts when a girl wearing silver clothes crossed the highway, dodging cars with ease and grace. Once the girl had crossed the highway she approached us. She looked us up and down as we prepared for a fight; me drawing my spatha and Jason flipping Ivlivs, turning it into a gladius. When she looked at Jason she scowled and sized him up in disgust. When she looked at me however, her expression lightened.

"State your business or die by the hands of the greatest hero ever known!" Jason stated arrogantly further adding to her disgust.

"Shut it Hercules! I seek to join the legion. And hopefully I won't have to kill all the males." The mysterious girl remarked and I smirked a little. At least half the boys in the legion were pretentious assholes and douchebags. I looked at her. Something was off about her. Her eyes held age and looked as if they had seen a lot in their time. But something else was off, I could just tell.

Jason cocked his head slightly before stepping forward and standing in a battle stance. "Well, as praetor I won't admit you if you are planning on killing every male in the legion. And plus what's wrong with Hercules, he was a great hero."

The girl snorted, "Hercules was a lot of things, but certainly not great. And in case thou hasn't noticed by my clothes, I was one of Lady Diana's Hunters. Hating men kind of goes with the job description. Also, what the heck is the praetor of the legion doing serving on guard duty? And I'm asking you daughter of Pluto, not Hercules over here." I looked at her in shock that she could tell who my godly parent was from looking at me, "Oh please, don't look at me like that. Thy scent of death is strong."

I started sniffing myself but couldn't smell anything. I had probably gotten used to it over the years. Jason lowered his sword before saying, "What is your name and what do you mean was one of Diana's hunters. Did you leave so you can find love? Because you are a beauty and I would date you in a heartbeat. Or have you already found love?" I almost face palmed at his stupidity. You never ask one of Diana's hunters out on a date. It doesn't matter if they left the hunt the best you get is a kick to the balls and a bludgeoning. The worst is castration among other things.

Jason was lucky he was the praetor because all he got was a well-placed kick between the legs. He didn't even have time to raise Ivlivs again. He fell to the ground grunting in pain.

"I said shut it Hercules! Thou shall only make this more painful for yourself."

"Ok, ok maybe that was a bit inappropriate for me to say to a hunter." Jason groaned still writhing and rolling in agony.

"I said shut it! I will answer thine questions when thou admits me into the legion!" the girl said, still not making any indication as to what her name was or parentage was. Jason rather wisely shut up.

"At least tell us your name." I asked as we could not allow someone in without knowing who they are.

"I am Zoë Nightshade, adopted daughter of Ar— Diana." She said stumbling over the last few words.

I raised an eyebrow, "Argh Diana? What the heck is that supposed to mean"

"Never mind!"

"What?" I narrowed my eyes and glared at her but she seemed unaffected.

"I said never mind!" She snapped harshly.

"Who is your real parent then?" Jason inquired curiously, forgetting that she had just floored him.

"Silence Hercules! I don't know!" She seemed quick to respond and if she was hiding something but I kept my mouth sealed. "Now will thou let me into thine legion?"

Jason nodded slightly "Ok but for your lack of respect for your superiors you will have to go under a series of tests to prove your worth and see what cohort will take you. This is punishment because most people get beat down so quickly that they learn to respect their superiors." Zoë just smirked, probably thinking she could beat the test. I highly doubted it as the only to do so before was praetor Reyna. "Hazel, wait here with the Zoë while I go fetch replacement guards. I think its time our watch was over anyway." He left quickly not leaving any room for argument.

"You seem off. You claim I smell like death but you smell like death too. Do you have any way of explaining that? Also why do you speak in Old English? No one has used thou or thy in centuries." I inquired curiously.

" I can tell thou but only if thou swears on the River Styx not to tell anyone. I don't know why but it just seems like I can just trust thou." She stated, not letting any emotion show. As much as I wanted to avoid binding myself to the Styx, I wanted to know what she had to say so I swore to her terms. "Well, a few years back there was an incident. And I kind of... died."

I stared at her before muttering, "Welcome to the club then."

"What club, there is a club for dying?"

"No... Just... Never mind. I'll keep your secret, but only because I'm in the exact same situation." She stared at me with wide eyes before I continued. "I died around seventy years back. Now why 'doth thou speaketh' in Old English? Did you die that long ago, because that isn't a few years back. Thats like half a freaking millennia."

"No it's hard to explain. I shall tell thou later, because Hercules is coming."

"His name is Jason Grace, not Hercules. He's far greater than Hercules." I said unsure why she thought he was Hercules.

"He's arrogant and a general dick, just like Hercules."

"You know he defeat Krios himself." I was surprised when she shrugged as if it were no big deal.

"My friend defeated Mars when he was twelve, lifted the sky at fourteen and defeated both Saturn and Hyperion at sixteen. Never heard him boasting about it." To say my jaw dropped would be an understatement. I looked at her to see a dreamy expression on her face.

"You seem to like this guy, who is he to you."

She looked down sadly before hardening her expression. "He doesn't even know I'm alive. I died shortly after he took the sky so my adopted mother could fight. From what I heard he's been driven into depression since last summer because of all the friends he lost defending Olympus against the Titan army last summer. He blames all their losses on himself. Wait a minute, did you say Grace, Jason Grace?"

I nodded and was about to say something but Jason came blundering out of the tunnel followed by a son of Mars and a son of Apollo. The Apollo boy wolf whistled when he saw Zoë, "Damn son, she is a work of art."

"Yea, isn't she a beauty"

Jason stepped back in fear while I waited for the inevitable to happen with my only thoughts being, "Oh crap." In a blur of silver both boys fell to the ground clutching their balls while screaming in pain and cursing in Latin.

I laughed loudly as Jason stepped back cautiously, "Let's go shall we?" I suggested, not wanting to subject the boys to any more pain. Zoë nodded sharply before following us into New Rome. Terminus didn't stop Zoë and I was surprised as she was the first As we walked through the street a lot of people looked Zoë with hate. Zoë looked around and I was surprised to see she was unimpressed by the architecture of the city.

"Graecus!" Shouted a Lares.

"Clauso ore deformis Vitellius. (Shut your ugly mouth Vitellius)" Zoë screamed back at the ghost and Vitellius seemed surprised.

He stepped in front of Zoë and stepped in front of her threateningly but Zoë just walked on through him. I let out a little giggle before following on behind them. When we neared the office of the praetors.

"Lead the way, Hercules." I said jokingly earning a scowl from Jason. When we entered the office I saw a woman wearing a silver dress holding a golden bow. She turned around and next to me Zoë was about to drop down into a bow when the woman tackled her to the ground in a hug.


	4. 4: A New Prophecy

(AN Sorry got a bit delayed but excessive work from school. /AN)

Chapter 4: A New Prophecy

Percy's POV

"Now Perseus Jackson, step forward. You will be offered one gift and one gift only. And we know what you shall ask. If you accept, then you shall be made a god."

My eyes widened slightly and thoughts began shooting through my head. But I knew it couldn't be. There was too much I needed to do. Too many things to ask the gods to do. Something in my gut told me not to accept it. This could be the break I needed, but I didn't deserve it. Many had sacrificed their lives so I could get here. I couldn't take all the credit and become a god. That would be unfair on those who fought equally hard to protect themselves and Olympus. I realized that I had been staring at Zeus for a while and the other gods were beginning to get annoyed.

"No."

"No? You would not accept our most generous offer!" Zeus's eyes flashed with unbridled fury. Everyone stared at me shocked.

I gulped and said, "It is not that my lord. It's just too many died to get me here. I know what they would all wish me to do and it will help prevent wars to come from being so difficult. My requests are simple but effective. I will need your word on the Styx that my wishes will be granted."

"An oath." Zeus muttered.

"A man once told me to always get a solemn oath on the river." I stared pointedly at Hades and he squirmed under the glare of half the council.

"Very well, we the council swear on the River Styx to abide by your terms as long as they are reasonable." The king stated and I was thankful even if he was reluctant to do it.

"Oh I assure they are very reasonable. First off Hestia and Hades should be part of the Olympian Council." People looked at me in shock and Zeus was about to protest but I continued before he could, "Secondly, all demigods are to be claimed by the age of thirteen. Thirdly peaceful Titans that did not fight in this war such as Calypso and Leto are to be released on the condition that they swear an oath never to go against the Olympus or its intentions." This only further added to people's shock and this time more gods were going to protest but I took pleasure in annoying them so I relentlessly continued with my last point, "Fourthly all gods should have cabins built at camp. It doesn't matter whether they are minor or major, they should have a cabin. The main reason minor gods joined Kronos's side was that they felt like they were treated badly and given no respect. And that leads on to my final point. All gods should be given a pardon if they chose to fight us. It would not do well to punish them as it will only further infuriate them."

When I finished my 'little' request Zeus literally steaming with unbridled fury while my father looked smug that I was his son and not anyone else's. "You ask for much nephew."

"I hold you all to your word."

Silence rippled across the room as everyone looked between me a Zeus. One could hear a pin drop as everyone stared. Zeus's lips curled into a smile before saying, "You never fail to impress me and that is why you are my favorite nephew." There was an indignant 'Hey!' from Nico as he complained about the favorite part of the sentence and everyone laughed. "You would sacrifice you gift for the wellbeing of other. You Perseus Jackson, have taught me more than the rest of the Olympians have in the past two Millenia!" Now there were indignant cries coming from the rest of the council as the audience were all laughing whole-heartedly for the first time since before the war.

"I wish you could have been my boy and that I had got to your mother before my brother here." Zeus said but quickly shrank as he took notice of Hera glaring at him in with rage written across her face.

"Well it looks like he hasn't taught you all _that_ much, has he now?"

Zeus flinched and looked at me. "Very well Perseus your wish shall be granted. I have taken notice that you did you did not request anything for yourself. What is it that you wish?"

I was speechless and thought for a moment before responding, "I have an idea but again it does not benefit me and I'm sorry lady Hera but you may not like it."

"What is it?" Zeus asked and he looked confused that I would use both gifts for other people.

"No more pact of the Big Three. Having, or rather a lack of having powerful demigods almost led to the downfall of Olympus. Plus having more children benefits the Big Three too. Right now the Big Three are weakened. They are not all that much more powerful than other gods. That is because of their lack of children to give offerings to them."

Hera glared at me and if looks could kill, right now the whole room would have been turned into an Olympian level Chernobyl. She seemed to calm down and see reason as Hestia whispered a few words in her ear that seemed to make her see reason.

"Very well. But I'm blaming you if my wife kills me." At that everyone, even Hera started laughing while I paled a shade or two. "Now for _your_ gift Perseus?"

"Never mind brother, Poseidon and I shall make a surprise for him. This would just take all night if you ask him again." Hestia said before I could think or respond.

"But I don't want anything!"

"Just shut up and take it!" Hestia snapped at me and I immediately stopped talking as Hestia could be downright scary. Everyone chuckled lightly before the meeting continued. Nico received the same gift as Thalia except he had his sword blessed by Zeus with electricity and his shield with ice and snow by Khione, who seemed more interested in glaring us to death than blessing his shield. Tyson got a club made out of some strange metal i'd never heard of called imperial gold.

"Oh, and Perseus. I name you polemarchos of the Greek army." Zeus said earning gasps from all gods major and minor, but everyone except for Ares and Athena children were just confused.

"Brother the Spartan army is long gone." Poseidon said in a hushed tone.

"I know but the Greeks have no system of ranking. It has to be done. The Greek demigods will be the first mora of the six morai. They will have two lochos. Think about it. We have to claim all demigods by the time they reach thirteen so we will have at least a hundred Greek demigods. A bit small for a mora I admit but one Spartan was worth ten normal soldiers. Demigods of any parentage are worth at least three Spartans, even without the extensive training of the Spartans they are better than them!" Zeus whispered back but being quiet is practically impossible when your voice booms like thunder.

"May I ask my lords, what is a polemarchos, or a mora or even a lochos for that matter?" A curious child of Apollo asked.

"Uh how should put this. I trust most of you have learnt about the Roman military?" Zeus questioned us and we nodded as part of battle class in learning military knowledge. "Well to put it simply a polemarchos is kind of like praetor or consul except a polemarchos leads all of the morai. A mora is like a Legion and the lochos is like a cohort or a centuria and a lochagos is like a centurion." Athena explained but seemed distracted as usually she would go on a long time about something to prove her intelligence rather pointlessly.

"We have yet to find the standard of the first mora but it is somewhere. One day there will be a quest to retrieve it. For now Perseus you are the polemarchos. You will choose the lochagos but choose wisely as power can corrupt people. There will be two lochos in the first mora. Good luck. Meeting adjourned." Zeus said.

"Party!" Dionysus screamed in joy.

Once the rewards ceremony was over there was a party that I paid little to no attention as I made my out to find out my girlfriend Rachel had stolen my pegasus and flown off to camp. Great so I took a taxi to camp... Or rather a taxi to the middle of nowhere as I had to get out halfway down a highway before making my way through a forest into the camp.

Chiron had decided to recall to camp early and stood outside the big house. Inside something going on. A bright green light was emanating from the attic. Chiron refused to tell me what was happening. All I was told was that I could not disturb the or 'she' would go insane. I did not know who 'she' was.

After about a half hour the light died down and the door to the big house opened and I smiled when I saw Rachel but she just looked at me sadly.

"I'm sorry Percy. She stated simply confusing me and I looked at her questioningly before she sighed and said. "I am the new oracle. I can't be in a relationship now. I hope you understand."

I could feel tears threatening to spill over but I nodded tersely and moved to leave but stopped when Rachel started speaking I a raspy voice that sounded ancient.

 _Octo half-bloods shall answer the call._

 _To storm or fire, the world must fall._

 _An oath to keep with a final breath,_

 _And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death._

"To storm or fire the world must fall." I muttered as I lit my hand on fire and stared into the flames. "Not good. Can't I catch a break?"

"Well Percy you never know... great prophecies can take a long time to break out." Chiron said but looked unsettled and doubtful as well. I control both storm and fire. There was almost no way it could be denied.

 **(Line Break — 2 Months Later)**

Camp has been improving ever since the gods made me the polemarchos. My duties distracted me from the fact that I was doubly screwed over by two girls. When girls found out that I am single they came in flocks. All that really did was annoy me a lot. The gods had been keeping to their promises and there were about a hundred demigods in camp by now and guess what? I have a new half brother constantly undermines authority! So how are things you ask? Peachy!

The peaceful Titans such as Calypso had been released. She spent the majority of her time on Olympus being educated about the modern world so that she could go into the mortal world and not look or sound like a freak. In fact we had briefly dated for about half a month but it wasn't working out for either of us so we broke it off. She recently decided that she will go traveling around the world and see all the sights there are before returning to the US. In fact she and Hermes had been hitting it off and there is the possibility that Hermes would be traveling with her (wink, wink) as he is the god of travelers and it would be dangerous for her to travel alone in a world where rape and murderers exist.

I have four lochagos, two for each lochos. I had chosen Clarisse and Malcolm for lochos one and Will Solace and Katie Gardener for lochos two. Ever since the end of the war our camp became militaristic. I can't say I liked but I can't say I didn't like it. In this new camp half blood it has become about who could become the best fighter in camp. Basically it became akin to Sparta without the whole sexist society. The camp was expanded and became a fortress while twenty cabins for minor gods had built and more were to come. To say my half brother was an annoyance would be an understatement.

When he saw my sword he tried to claim it saying that the favorite son of Poseidon should be using it, to which I responded that the favorite son of Poseidon is using it and knocked him out cold. He thought he was special because he went on one quest to steal an apple from the guardian of the Hesperides but everyone laughed at him and told him that was the quest the gods send you on to screw you over.

The second time he tried to take Anaklusmos I told him " sure" and placed it on ground where he could try and take it. Funny story, he looked like an idiot. When I slew Kronos with the sword it 'cursed' the sword and made it so that only me and people I want can use it. The golden stuff that was absorbed into the sword turned out to be Kronos's powers. It turns out I have become like a mortal god, if that makes sense. Next time Kronos tries to rise he will find that he has no domains and that he is just the Titan king and nothing more. I gained powers over time on a godly level that increased in power when I wielded Anaklusmos. In fact I was told by Poseidon that if I had chosen to become immortal I would have become the god of time itself. The Kronos 2.0 if you will. The difference being that Kronos 1.0 would be corrupt while 2.0 is uncorrupt.

When I first touched the sword after killing Kronos, I felt an immense pain. It turns out that the sword forced me to become partially immortal and the painful part was the powers being transferred over to me.

Not to mention I got a cool new weapon from Hestia, Poseidon, even Hades, Zeus and Artemis helped out. It turns out that Hestia, Poseidon and Artemis forged it while Hades tempered it in the Styx and blessed it so that at will I could use the weapon to kill ghosts, or split ground and summon an army of the dead. When the forging was done Zeus blessed it giving it power making it electrical (kind of like Clarisse's spear lamer, I mean maimer). Apparently as a son of Poseidon I have power over electricity to a limited extent through storms. When I wield the weapon it increases the extent of my powers over electricity. It was a beautiful trident of bimetal mortal steel and godly grade celestial bronze. The head of the trident was plated with enchanted silver so that the trident could be used in the case that I came across werewolves and that the silver would never come off. The gods had made the weapon so that at the cost of great amounts of energy drained from me. I could send blasts of pure energy as attacks. It was the attack that you see gods like Dionysus so often using.

The trident was completely made of the bimetal alloy. Hestia and Poseidon never told the others this but the trident was made from the metal of Kronos's scythe. They had spent hours removing the enchantment on the blade that allows it to cut the soul and not just the physical being. Every bit of the Titan's power was removed and replaced with godly power so that if Kronos were to rise again not only would he not have a domain, but he wouldn't have a symbol of power as well and he would be weak.

They gave it three different forms: trident, scythe and sword. They allowed it to retain scythe form in case I ever wanted to scare the crap out of someone and pretend to be Kronos and simply as a reminder that I defeated him.

In scythe form and sword form the silver plates the edges of the scythe or sword blade so that it was still capable of killing werewolves. In sword form it was an Ancient Greek style Falcata which was designed to distribute the weight like an ax while still having a full cutting edge. Falcatas could split helmets and shields with less force applied than a leaf shaped xithos sword like Anaklusmos.

I had become quite proficient in the use of the falcata and the trident. In fact, with a trident I was a natural and was easily defeating everyone from when I first used it and I wondered why I waited so long to use one as it was the obvious choice given my parentage. I could not practice with the scythe form though as that would raise suspicions as to why I'm running around fighting with a scythe.

Now I'm on my way to Olympus. Hestia and Hera wanted to talk to me about something and I was terrified that Hera might want to kill me for getting rid of the pact of the big three.

"600th floor please." I told the doorman.

"There is no 600th floor, beat it kid."

"I have a meeting with lady Hera and Hestia." I said losing patience.

"What are you? Crazy? I said beat it!"

This time I lost my patience and summoned my trident and threw it through the glass separating us and pinned his neck to the wall behind him. Oh yea I forgot about that. Since I'm basically a god (a mortal one) I have the ability to summon my symbol of power out of nowhere. The strange thing is I have two symbols because of the incident where Kronos lost his powers to me. "Do you know who I am?"

The man had a look of struggled against my trident but could not push it away. I reached over the counter and took the key before unpinning him and getting into the elevator ignoring the terrified stares of mortals around me probably wondering where I got a trident from, or whatever they think I was holding.

When I reached Olympus I made my way straight to Hera's temple and literally ran into a blond kid with a purple shirt on my way. We both collapsed to the ground groaning.

"Sorry mate." I tried to say but the kid just growled.

"Do you know who I am kid?"

"No I don't…" I said confused as to why he thinks I should know him.

"Get out of my way, I have a meeting with Juno and Vesta!"

"Juno? Vesta? Oh you mean Hera and Hestia. I have a meeting with them too."

"What are you, Greek or something?" The kid snarled.

"Uh… Yes I am." Apparently that was the wrong answer as the kid pulled out a… coin and flipped it. Boy, was it a surprise when it turned into a Roman gladius made out of that same imperial gold metal as Tyson's club.

He charged at me and I rolled out of the way pulling my pen out.

"What are you going to do? Draw me to death?" He growled to which I scoffed.

"What are _you_ going to do? Flip a coin to the death?" I retorted making him madder.

He charged at me and I uncapped Anaklusmos and stopped his blade as it descended on me. We traded strikes. I knew I could easily beat this kid but I wanted to give him a chance, but he wasn't so reluctant. He drove his gladius towards my chest but took on an astonished look when the blade glanced off of my chest.

"Do you know who I am Graecus? I am Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, slayer of Krios, desolator of the throne of Kronos!"

"You think that that is big? Well, let me tell you. I defeated Ares at twelve, fought Atlas and held the sky at fourteen, and defeated Kronos and Hyperion at sixteen."

Jason's jaw dropped and he lowered his sword and cocked his head sideways. "You're the one that Zoë talks about all the time?"

"Zoë's alive?" By now I think I was the one who was more shocked and thoughts ran through my head at a billion miles per hour. " _Zoë is alive? She talks about me all the time? No, she's a hunter she wouldn't. Not to mention she's dead, isn't she?"_

"This changes nothing Graecus." The kid Jason began growling again and he charged only to freeze when a woman's voice rang out.

"Stop! Jason! No!"

We turned to see a woman with a goatskin with a standing next to Hestia

The woman looked at me and frowned and flickered into a person I knew all too well as lady Hera. I immediately got down into a bow and even the Roman dude wasn't stupid enough to challenge my decision.

"Follow us you two." Hestia's said leaving no room for argument as the two goddesses turned and marched off towards Hera's temple.

The boy and I frowned at each other and walked off to her temple without saying another word. When we entered the two goddesses sat on one couch and told us to take the couch opposite of them. We looked at each other with distaste, obviously not wanting to sit next to each other but we both knew not to disobey a goddess.

"So Percy I see you have already _acquainted_ yourself with your Roman cousin." Hestia said with a serious expression on her face.

"Yes though I would rather he'd have talked to me instead of shoving his sword in my face as soon as I said 'Hera' or 'Hestia'." I said glaring at Jason who reached for his pocket, no doubt going for the coin while I outstretched my right hand ready to summon my trident at any given time.

Jason took his coin out and in one deft move tossed it up and transformed it into a spear while I summoned my Trident to my hand. We both shot to our feet and pointed our weapons at each other.

"Stand down both of you!" Hera shouted. I let go of my trident and it stood itself up on the floor as if there was a magical force preventing it from falling. Jason turned the spear back into a coin but kept the coin grasped in his hand.

"Good, now I assume both of you have heard the prophecy of eight?"

"Aye." we both said at once.

"Well, the prophecy is starting. Make no mistake, war is coming. Zeus' is going to lock down Olympus in his arrogance and we need to unite the two camps for this war. The prophecy calls for eight half bloods. All I can say is that there will be five Greeks and three Romans. Two Greeks and one Roman will be dead people who have risen." At the last words my patron said both Jason and my eyes widened. Dead people on a quest?

"What do you mean?" I asked hoping I could receive more information on who these dead people could be.

"A couple old friends of yours," Stated Hera simply and I frowned trying to think who could it be.

My eyes widened as I remembered what Jason said earlier and I blurted out full with hope, "Zoë?"

I looked at Hera and she nodded, "She arrived at camp Jupiter a couple days ago."

"Camp Jupiter?" As I thought about that I wondered what camp Jupiter was.

"That brings me onto the next point. There are two camps. There is one for Romans, and one Greeks. We had to separate them as they always fight each other when they meet. The Romans are worse for the whole kill on sight thing than the Greeks. We need to unify the camps in a war against Terra and the Gigantes." Jason and I both looked at Juno and I could not keep myself from looking down glumly. Then I remembered. Zoë and another friend of mine would come back alive and a smile crept onto my face.

I looked at Jason and he asked the question we both wondered, "So what are we going to do to achieve this?"


	5. 5: Where am I?

Chapter 5: Where Am I?

Jason's POV

I shot up awake in the back of a school bus. I looked around and saw that I was sitting next to some scrawny kid who was fiddling with something in his hand. People were sprawled out on seats listening to iPods, talking and sleeping. They were all around my age… fifteen? Sixteen? Okay that's scary I don't know my own age.

A kid in front of me shot up too as if waking from a bad dream. He had sandy blonde hair and sky blue eyes and looked older than the rest of us. Must have been held back a year or so. He was looking around confused, as was I. There was a startlingly attractive girl sat next to him holding his hand tightly as if he would disappear if she let go.

"What?" We both said at the same time. He turned around and looked at me. I looked at him and a moment of understanding passed through both of us. Neither of us knew who we were or where the hell we were.

"What Jase?" The kid next to me looked up while his hands ceaselessly tinkered with an object.

"Where…?" I asked still confused out of my mind.

"I have no idea… What's my name?" The sandy haired kid in front of me asked with a bewildered look on his face. We looked around again.

"You gotta be kidding me. Don't pull this crap again Luke." The girl next to him said dismissively. Now I was really confused. Somehow two people woke up in a school bus with no knowledge of who they are, or where they are.

"I genuinely have no idea where we are." I stated and the kid in front of me nodded slightly. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. It was a photograph of a beautiful girl with obsidian black eyes and glossy black hair that was pulled into a single long braid sitting next to me in some office. The photo had writing on the back 'Reyna and Jason. First day in the office. Love is already in the air.'

I turned it back around and stared at the girl who was supposedly my girlfriend.

"Whoah! Dude! You never told me you had such a hot girlfriend! Or is she available for me to take?" The scrawny kid beside me said before gaining a mischievous look.

"I have no idea. I don't even remember my name." I muttered and the kid looked at me incredulously before his face turned understanding but I just stared at him.

"I get it! You two are trying to get me back for my shaving cream on Jell-O prank!" He said before laughing uproariously while 'Luke' and I just stared at him blankly.

I cocked my head to a side and was about to respond but 'Luke' beat me to the catch, "What do you mean? Sounds like a good prank but I have no idea what the heck you're talking about."

"Same here"

It was at this point the girl turned around and glared at me. Her eyes seemed to change colours like a kaleidoscope every few seconds and I briefly wondered if she was wearing some high tech contact lenses, "You're not serious, are you? What are the chances that you both got knocked on the head and became amnesiac?"

"Very small, why?" Luke replied.

"It's a terrible joke, that's why." The scrawny kid said. So far neither had revealed their names. And Luke and I both looked at each other before shrugging.

"We'll settle this later." I said and Luke just nodded slightly. The bus rumbled along a bumpy road and out of the window's I could see miles of desert and I'm pretty sure none of us live in the desert.

"All right cupcakes, listen up!" A teacher at the front of the bus shouted. He was obviously a coach judging by the baseball cap, orange polo shirt, nylon workout pants, spotless white Nikes and the whistle that hung from his neck. He would have looked scary if he weren't five foot zero

"Stand up Coach Hedge!" A student called and everyone except from Luke and I snickered.

"I heard that!" The beady things he calls eyes scanned the bus before settling on me he scowled and I instantly knew that he knew that I wasn't meant to be here. When he looked at looked at Luke however his scowl deepened before turning into a look or resentment and hatred.

He looked away and cleared his throat, "We'll be arriving in five minutes! Stay with your partner. Don't lose your worksheet. And if any of you precious little cupcakes cause any trouble on this trip I will personally send you back to campus the hard way!"

"Can he talk to us like that?" I asked the scrawny kid, a little worried that Luke and I might have a psychopathic midget coach trying to kill us.

"Yeah and he doesn't seem to like me… at all." Luke voiced my fears out.

I leant over and whispered in Luke's ear, "We shouldn't be here…"

Apparently I said it louder than I thought because the scrawny kid laughed heartily, "Of course you're meant to be here. All the people on this bus has issues, I mean Piper steals things. Things like BMWs."

The girl who was still holding Luke's hand scowled at the kid, "I didn't steal it Leo. I just asked and he gave it to me."

"Sure he did." Said 'Leo' sarcastically.

Piper rolled her eyes before turning to look at me, "So you guys really don't remember anything?"

"Nope." We immediately answered.

"Well your name is Jason and Luke." Leo said pointing at me then Luke, "I'm Leo and that's Piper, Luke's girlfriend. We're best friends and you guys always do everything I ask and want."

"Leo!"

"Ok, ok maybe not the last bit but we are best friends. Does that ring any bells?" Leo said. Luke and I looked at each other and shrugged. They aren't the worst people to be friends with.

"Dude? Are you high or something?" Luke blurted out rather rudely and I stifled a laugh.

"No what makes you say that?" Leo replied still hyperactively fiddling with the object.

"Did you have too much sugar in your coffee this morning?" I asked, playing along with Luke.

Leo frowned and cocked his head sideways at us, "What are you suggesting?"

Luke and I burst into laughter, "Cause you're constantly fiddling as if you've hopped up on too much Kool-Aid."

Leo gave a light chuckle. "Anyway, I hope you got your worksheet. Luke and I used mine to shoot spit wads at coach hedge days ago."

"Leo Valdez!" Coach yelled from the front, "Problem back there cupcakes?"

Leo looked like a Latino Santa's elf as his face gained a mischievous smile and winked at us. "Watch this." He said before calling out to the coach, "Sorry, Coach! I was having trouble hearing you. Could you use your megaphone, please?"

The coach looked pleased to have an excuse to blare in their ears and he unclipped it from his belt and continued giving directions but his voice came out like Darth Vader's. Everyone cracked up. When the coach tried again the megaphone blared: "The cow says moo!"

The kids holed and the coach slammed the megaphone down in rage. "Valdez!"

"Nice one Leo, I like you already! How did you do that?" Luke asked between chuckles.

Leo slipped a tiny Phillips-head screwdriver from his sleeve, "I'm a special boy."

"That's it! Back two rows just volunteered to clean up after lunch!"

The back two rows groaned while everyone else cheered.

When we arrived at the destination storms were gathering. Strangely enough they seemed localised above us. I looked around at where we were. The Grand Canyon…


	6. 6: Explanations

Chapter 6: Explanations

Hazel's POV

Zoë and I are standing on guard duty. I found out a little more about her life but she refused to tell me anything before her death apart from that she has lived for millennia and died saving her adopted mother. She constantly rambles about some boy name Percy and how he is awesome but never tells me or the praetors anything but his titles. It turns out when Jason stormed Othrys last year it wasn't destroying the seat of power to made Saturn crumble but some other boy that defeated him.

Lady Diana was here when she arrived and tried to persuade Zoë to rejoin some hunting group of hers but Zoë refused and told her that she wanted to try something different for once. Zoë defeated all the centurions in a series of trials and all the cohorts vouched for her to join but she chose cohort five. Centurion Gwen convinced Reyna to allow her to give the centurion vacancy to Zoë which she gratefully accepted and became the fastest ever person to move from probatio status to legionnaire to centurion.

When Jason became praetor, cohort five slunk back down into it's bad luck and everyone hated it again. When Zoë joined however it's luck slowly grew better. We were winning more and more war games than ever before.

A few months after Zoë joined things started going wrong for the legion as a whole. Praetor Jason disappeared without a trace and Reyna slumped into depression; thinking that her boyfriend did not love her anymore. For some reason I suspected Zoë might know where he was but she always denied. If that weren't bad enough, well monsters won't die for some reason.

"Psst! Hazel! There's a boy crossing the road and he's carrying… Is that Juno?" Zoë whispered to me while drawing a pair of arm length silver hunting knives. I could not understand for the life of me how those still classified as knives. She held them in an icepick position and braced herself.

"I'll do the talking. Try not to castrate him." I said half jokingly to her but it was true, last time some boy tried flirting with her it took ten people to stop her for castrating him. Since then boys have wisely kept their distance.

As the boy got closer I saw that he had sea green eyes, and messy black hair and skin that looked naturally tanned. He was definitely muscular but also a bit lean so he did not look like some idiot who spends twenty-four hours a day in the gym. If I was going to be quite honest with you he looked like a god.

I realized I was staring and looked away and shouted, "State your business."

He then replied with a very intelligent answer, "Uh, hi. Some wolf told me to come here."

I looked at Zoë and saw that her eyes were widened in shock, "Percy?"

"Uh yea, how did you know my name?" He asked as his face looked confused, "Have we met before?"

Zoë lowered her knives and I looked at her in shock. She never acted like this. But, that name. That was Zoë's boyfriend. I mean friend. She always insisted they were just friends but I suspected she wanted more. Zoe then replied, "Thou does not remember me?"

"Uh, well. Thats a scary topic because I don't even remember my own age. All I remember is my name."

He set Juno down who then said, "Zoë, Hazel I need to speak to you two after this. Lets go in. Percy here needs to join the legion. Plus there are some gorgons chasing him and they won't die."

When we went through the tunnel we came to the river and were about to cross when suddenly Zoë stopped and pushed Percy away from the river. "Art thee crazy Juno? He's going to lose _it_. He can't cross this river."

"Ah yes, I forgot about that. Well, thats a bit of a dilemma." Juno stated simply not doing anything about it.

"Uh, what are you two talking about?" I questioned as I was extremely confused by now. The sudden appearance of this boy was really getting to me.

"I'm talking about a blessing that allows me to do this." Zoe stated before pulling out a hunting knife and in one sharp stepping forward and driving it towards his chest. I gasped as I thought she was going to kill him but even more to my surprise the knife just glanced off his body as if he was wearing extremely hard armor. The knife ripped his shirt and revealed a six pack underneath that sent Zoë blushing furiously. But I was more shocked that he wasn't wearing armor.

"What the heck?" I stammered out. That could be the all time best blessing to have.

"I'll explain everything to you later Hazel when I'm talking to you two in private. Percy you're a son of Neptune. Part the river and cross. Do not let any of the water touch you or you will lose the blessing."

The boy never ceases to amaze me. He raised his hands up and made a gesture that pushed the water away and parted the river. Zoë took the first step. She was certain that the river bed was dry and Percy crossed without dropping his the time we reached the other side a sizable group of Romans had accumulated probably wondering who the newcomer son of Neptune was.

"What the Pluto?" A couple of people said and I snapped at them for using my father's name like that.

When we reached the other side Juno changed into a more recognizable form with a staff and a goatskin. All the Romans fell down into deep bows in front of the queen of gods. Never had the queen herself delivered a recruit.

"Romans! Rise! I bring before you today a new recruit. His name is Perseus Jackson and he will be an asset to New Rome!" I was surprised when only Reyna seemed to recognize the name after Zoë's past months of chatter-boxing. Juno then turned to me and Zoë, "I need to talk to you both."

She grabbed both of our arms and teleported us to some garden. The last thing I saw was Reyna making her way over to Percy.

"I see you still haven't learnt modern English Zoë. I assume the Romans gave you a hard time about it. Now you are probably wondering why only Reyna recognized his name after Zoë's consistent rambling. Am I correct?" we both nodded and Zoë blushed, "Well I have come up with a plan. I had to erase anything Zoë told anyone apart from you Hazel. As you probably noticed Reyna also recognized Percy and that is because they ran into each other a few years back on Circe's Island before you died Zoë."

"Reyna used to work for Circe?"

"Yes, that is why she keeps it a secret. Percy and that traitor Annabeth set a bunch of pirates free which Circe had turned into guinea pigs. Let's just say that the pirates were a little pissed that they were turned into guinea pigs and that Percy had stolen their ship. Did I tell you that Percy was also turned into one? That was funny to watch. Reyna and her sister Hylla were on the Island at the time and lets just say that Reyna and Hylla were almost raped by the pirates but as daughters of Bellona they have natural skill with weapons and were able to escape with their chastity intact."

"Wow. He never told me that." Zoë said slightly dreamily but she snapped out of it, "Any way what is this plan of yours and how does it involve Percy?"

"Well, first I must ask you both not to reveal the plan until such a time that Percy regains all his memories." Juno started and we nodded eager to hear this plan. "As you may or may not know Zoë, the Greek camp has been turned militaristic by Zeus. Percy was placed as the polemarchos and the whole camp seems to be run better as the first mora with two lochos."

"Wait, the morai disintegrated when Sparta fell." Zoë stated any I was confused out of my mind.

"Wait, Greeks, another camp?" I said in confusion. Zoë looked at me with a funny face before realization spread across her face.

"Juno art thou going to tell her, because I am forbidden to do so?" Zoë said. By now I had no inkling of a clue what they were talking about.

"Sure. Hazel what I am about to tell you is purely confidential. The gods have two forms. Roman and Greek. Both forms have demigod children. Across the US is another camp with Greek demigods instead of Roman. We separated the two because when the two encountered each other there was conflict. The last time we openly allowed knowledge of either camp led to bloodbath in the American Civil War."

"A whole camp! Why didn't they help in the war? We lost many a good Roman while they sat on their asses!" I screeched in anger.

"They did help. Their losses were far worse actually. While your sizable Roman army stormed the small army left of Othrys, the small army of Greeks defended Olympus against the majority of the Titan's army. The gods could not help either side as we were fighting Typhon. Perseus himself fought and defeated both Hyperion and Saturn. While the Romans lost maybe one quarter of its army the Greeks lost three quarters of theirs. Perseus was offered godhood for leading an army of about forty demigods against the Titans successfully but he turned it down in favor of giving respect to others and having the gods claim all their children by thirteen. It was like the Battle of Thermopylae which pitted the Spartans against the massive armies of Persia except the Greek demigods were successful where the three hundred spartans were not." That shut me up. It seems Percy was a formidable leader who fought with valor. But that left another question in my mind.

"But why risk it now?"

"Because there is another war coming, in all its glory, and all its horror." Juno said simply and I was sure my jaw hit the floor.

"Another?" Zoë chipped in now, "Let me guess, Gaia and the gigantes again, they were a pain in the ass to beat last time and that asshole Heracles stole all the credit when he actually sat back while the hunters shot the giants. Only they could be such a big threat that we would need both camps working together."

She started explaining her plan, "Correct. We have wiped the memories of both Perseus and Jason. Jason was sent to the Greeks while Perseus is with the Romans. They need to gain the trust of each other's camps so that the unification is successful. I'm sure you have heard the prophecy of eight by now?" We both nodded, "Well it is starting. It requires five greeks and three romans. There are to be two Greeks and one Roman who have risen from the dead. The dead Roman being you, Hazel, while the dead Greeks being Zoë and Luke Castellan."

"Luke? That traitor?" Zoë screeched with rage at the bad memories that came to mind.

"Relax Zoë. He redeemed himself, just ask Perseus when he gets his memories back." Juno explained reassuringly.

"I'll be damned if the boy can redeem himself after all he did. Countless lives were lost because that idiot joined Kronos." Zoë snarled viciously.

"Countless more lives would have been lost if it were anyone else. No one else, save Percy himself, would have the strength mentally to fight Kronos while hosting him. If it were anyone else on the Titan's army, Ethan Nakamura for example, Kronos would have crushed their mind and Perseus would never have won the war as Kronos wouldn't have had that extra mental resistance. The world would be lost without Luke that is for definite." Zoë gritted her teeth. She wanted to strangle Juno for appraising him instead of attacking him.

"I'll go along with your little plans. But don't expect me to be kind to that traitor." I flinched as Zoë said that, thinking of all the painful things Diana's hunters were taught to do.

"I do so believe that Perseus can bring the respect to the sea that my brother deserves. The Romans are far too spiteful of Neptune." Juno stated. She was the goddess of family, it was obvious she would feel that way.

"I can agree with that. The Romans do not respect sea deities enough, that is why I never told them who my true mother was." Zoë said with a tinge of sadness.

Juno just nodded, "Oh and Zoë, your sword has been cursed but I don't think the curse is actually a bad thing."

Zoë cocked her head sideways, "I knew something was wrong. What has that idiot done to Anaklusmos?"

"Well, I guess you remember making him swear to kill Saturn with your sword am I correct?" Zoë nodded, "Well, when Saturn was killed, his powers and domain over time were transferred to the sword. The first person to touch it gained time as a domain and that person was Perseus. Now I'm sure you remember how you imbedded part of your soul's essence into the sword, right?"

Zoë nodded, "Aye, because it strengthens the bond between sword and user as long as the user was approved of by the maker."

"Yes, you see when the domain was transferred to the sword your soul soaked half of it while Perseus took the other half. You both essentially became gods of time. You both share a domain. The only difference between you and the other gods is that you are both only partially immortal because of the untraditional methods used. This means you and him are still both allowed to interfere with the lives of mortals unlike me. You are both technically demigods and technically not demigods. Next time Saturn tries to rise you will find that he is simply a bigoted fool with no domain or symbol of power." Juno said making both mine and Zoë's mouths drop.

"What do you mean he won't have a symbol of power? Are you suggesting that the scythe belongs to Zoë and Percy now?" I said and Juno smiled brightly.

"Yes, that is exactly what I am suggesting. They were going to be the symbols for Perseus only but now that Zoë has risen again, they both share symbols of power. They both have two symbols and they are the same each other's. One is Anaklusmos and the other is the scythe. As you and Perseus are both children of the sea, Zoë; we have given the scythe a more appropriate form of a trident but it can easily morph in a Greek falcata or scythe. In fact Zoë if you just extend your hand and imagine a bimetallic trident symbol of power, it should appear, provided that Perseus isn't using it and vice versa. Same for Anaklusmos except that one will always return to Perseus' pocket when you are finished unless he gives back to you to keep in which case it will vice versa again." Juno explained. I couldn't help but feel jealous at the immense amounts of power that both Zoë and Perseus held with these weapons.

Zoë extended her hand and a trident appeared in it out of nowhere. The trident was made of bimetallic celestial bronze and steel while the trident head was plated in silver, probably for anti-werewolf. As I looked on it in awe the trident changed in form to a strange banana shaped bimetal sword with silver plated cutting edges and then to a scythe with silver plated edges before disappearing altogether. I looked at Zoë and she had a look of joy on her face at the weapon which she possessed.

"I would have thought you'd be more pissed off about having to share a domain and symbol of power with a boy, Zoë." Said Juno jokingly with a raised eyebrow as Zoë glared at her. "I knew that you had feelings for him Zoë! A bit odd since you were the biggest man-hater among Diana's hunters for millennia. Then again if I didn't know better I would say that Diana herself has feelings for him but they are merely friends and she merely respects him."

"I do not!" She snapped rather rudely but she couldn't hide the blush that was evident on her face, "And what do you mean about Artemis?"

"Well, when Perseus was made polemarchos he greatly increased Diana's favor for him by naming the hunters as the third lochos and a force of purely elite fighters. Really they are just the hunters but they are more of a specialist category of soldiers and the role of third lochos is only played during war scenarios. Nevertheless she was grateful. They also worked together for a while to hunt down the stragglers from the Titan army after the war." Juno said it all quickly as if it were no big deal but I of course knew that any male gaining the friendship of lady Diana was a nigh on impossible task.

"How did he manage to survive more than ten minutes with her never mind gain her favor?" I voiced my thoughts loudly.

"I have no idea. It seems impossible to me." Zoë muttered.

"Also explain how you stabbed him and he didn't die?"

"He bathed in the River Styx and gained the curse of Achilles. It makes him invulnerable at all parts of his body except one point that he chose while in the Styx. It is meant to be a closely guarded secret but I have a feeling that I know where it is for some reason." Zoë stated blankly as if it were no big deal and my mouth his the floor at the overload of information I had received in the past half hour.

"All right it is time for you both to return to camp. Perseus is going to be undergoing his trials in a minute or two. I for one want to see him wipe the floor with some arrogant Romans. Oh and Zoë as a centurion you'll have to fight him. Trust me when I say he will smash you into a pulp if you are arrogant and insult him for being a male, it won't even take him much effort. I assume his subconscious will make him let you use Anaklusmos while he wields the falcata or trident. Good luck Zoë, you'll need it." Her words frightened me dead because I had never seen a better fighter than Zoë and if he could use her as a mop I had no wish to cross him.

Juno teleported us straight outside the coliseum where we saw Perseus holding a spear in one hand and a rounded dish shield in the other. The spear was no Roman spear and the shield was not Roman either. The spearhead was a large leaf shaped blade that would have difficulty in penetrating armor but I had no doubt it that it was deadly to flesh. At the butt of the spear was a long spike that looked less deadly to flesh but more likely to puncture armor. It was about two and half meters long which is longer than the standard Roman pilum by half a meter and would be a deadly melee weapon in the right hands.

The shield looked Greek. It was a wooden dish shaped aspis with bronze plating on it and a trident design. As far as I knew celestial bronze was really rare so I wondered how he had so much of it, so rare only Reyna had seen it before today. Where lots of people would opt for a metal cuirass he wore a simple greek style linen shirt; a linothorax. His round shield did not cover his legs which instead adorned bronze greaves and he wore simple greek sandals like the soldiers of old. There was a xiphos that glowed with power strapped to his leg and from the distance I could see Greek writing on the hilt. All he was missing was the Corinthian helm that Greek hoplites war.

We had some Greek style weaponry in the armory but no one used it. The only three people who had ever touched that stuff were Reyna, Jason and Zoë; Reyna and Zoë in particular. The first centurion he had to battle was none other than Gwen of the fifth cohort as Zoë rushed off to the armory to kit herself up for battle as she was directly after Gwen.

Gwen stood there confidently with her pilum and scutum shield outfitted in the armor of a standard legionnaire. Usually people would shout insults and jeer at her because she is in fifth cohort but this time everyone was jeering at the recruit, calling him a "Graecus" among other things. The entire Legion and city of New Rome was sitting in the coliseum and the noise was really loud.

"Silentium stulti!" Juno shouted at the top of her voice, effectively quietening the crowd down. "This recruit has the favor of the Olympian council." Juno sat down in the Imperial box in the seat that was usually occupied by Jason.

"Today we have a new recruit. I present to you, Perseus Jackson, Son of Neptune, he is…" Reyna trailed off as Juno whispered something in her ear. "I stand corrected, Perseus Jackson, Son of Neptune, adopted Son of Juno and Champion of Vesta. He seeks a place in the legion and will complete the trials as he has no reference letters."

" _Son of Juno_?" I thought as Gwen was announced. They both stood in ready position as the word came from Reyna to fight. Neither moved an inch as they analyzed each other. Perseus held his spear in an overarm grip that was ready to throw at any given point he may need. Gwen looked a little less comfortable as she held the pilum in an underarm position as well. Perseus had the benefit of range while Gwen had the lighter pole-arm and should be able to attack faster.

Suddenly Gwen and Perseus both threw their arms. Gwen's pilum would have nailed Perseus right in the face but he shifted himself an inch to the right and the pilum sailed past his head. The doru spear glanced off of Gwen's rectangular shield as expected. They both drew their swords, Perseus had a xiphos that was crafted out of celestial bronze and gleamed golden with power. That had to be the sword Anaklusmos that Zoë and Juno spoke of earlier. Golden time energy radiated off the sword and all the Romans in the coliseum looked at the sword hungrily with desire. Gwen lunged at Perseus but he just lifted his shield and charged into it. He bashed Gwen down to the ground effortlessly and stood with one foot on the shield that was pressed against her chest and the other on her sword arm. He calmly lifted his sword and leveled it with Gwen's face speaking one word.

"Yield?"

Gwen grunted and nodded, knowing that there was nothing that she could do about it as he had her pinned to the ground.

"Well, that was unexpected. Up next Zoë Nightshade adopted daughter of Diana, junior centurion of the fifth cohort." Reyna announced as Gwen dragged herself out dejectedly. All the crowd jeered and cried insults at her. Zoë walked into the coliseum calmly as she had just got back from the armory. She was now kitted out in exactly the same way as Perseus. Both of them stood in full hoplite uniform. All the Romans in the coliseum were surprised as Zoë usually preferred light equipment and quick weapons such as hunting knives.

Perseus dropped the xiphos and its sheath into the ground and left it there for Zoë to collect while he summoned the falcata into his hand and attached the falcata sheath where the xithos one was. Zoë, meanwhile picked up the xiphos that was left on the ground and sheathed it in her empty sheath. All the Romans were left shocked at how he was willing to let such a powerful weapon go only to summon another. Zoë lowered her Corinthian helm as Perseus tugged on a necklace that was around his neck and summoned one onto his own head. They looked absolutely professional as both of them stood their with their Greek equipment. All of Percy's equipment was made out of celestial bronze while Zoë's equipment was made out of imperial gold.

"Begin!" Reyna stuttered as she watched the Greek clad warriors stand there. Neither moved an inch and they stood flawless ready positions. They both quite literally looked like statues which was impressive as most demigods had ADHD and Percy looked to be no exception. I tried to look closer at their eyes and found that they stared at each other with unwavering concentration.

After about five minutes both suddenly charged at each other. Zoë made the first stab as Percy dodged it unfazed by the prospect of being killed with a deadly weapon. Both of the made lighting fast stabs and strikes and attempted to hit one another but neither managed to land a single hit on each other. They made the heavy armor they wore look like featherweights as they gracefully danced with weapons. I knew for a fact that the armor they used was not mean't to be used in single combat but in a formation but they both seemed unfazed by the heavy armor and continued fighting. I could tell Zoë was wearing down while Percy seemed to be completely fine.

We all looked at them in awe at their skills in combat. Percy was obviously not an amateur and had most definitely been trained in the arts of combat. The centurions still looked like they were going to continue with their arrogance despite his display of skills.

Both of them broke away from each other and hurled their spears at each other but neither was able to hit as both of them skipped away. They unsheathed their swords and everyone stared. Both of the swords glowed with raw godly power and both were Greek in design. I was certain everyone was suspicious about our 'new' recruit.

They charged at each other and clashed again but still could not manage to land a single strike on the other. Percy seemed to decide to change tactic. Instead of attacking Zoë directly he was hacking at the shield. The centurions of the first four cohorts laughed in arrogance and jeered at how 'bad' he was. Percy raised his sword and did a heavy overhead strike down and as expected Zoë lifted her shield to block. That was when I noticed something. The sword clove through steel plated shield and into the wood as if he was using an axe and not a sword. He raised the sword to strike down again and Zoe seemed to realize what he was doing but too late. The sword crashed into the shield and the shield shattered. Zoe looked dejectedly at the shield before stepping back and slipping it off. Percy just tugged at his necklace and everything except for his sword disappeared. He now stood wearing normal mortal clothes.

I blinked and stared in disbelief. None of the Romans understood what was going on as Zoë took off her helm and charged again. Percy just spread his arms as if welcoming death but I knew he was letting the curse of Achilles do it's thing and so did Zoë. She drove Anaklusmos at his chest and all the Romans were shocked that he was just letting her kill him but a couple of people fainted when they saw the blade glance off him and simply tear a big hole in his shirt revealing the fact that he wore no armor.

Percy smirked as he clashed with Zoë again. They started striking and then they both carried out a disarming move at the same time and the fight turned into a fist fight. Zoë charged forward and tackled him to the ground. Everyone was shocked when he leaned up and pecked Zoë on the cheek making her freeze up. If he wasn't dead before he was certainly dead now. Zoë _hated_ men and that just made his death sentence worse. Using her frozen state to an advantage, he grabbed the xiphos which was close by and reversed the roles so that it was Zoë being forced to yield. A dirty trick to win a game.

People were even more surprised when Zoë said nothing about it and just walked away, collecting her equipment as she went. She was notorious for trying to murder just about any man who so much as touched her. Even if she didn't realize it, she had a crush on Percy and I knew it. I looked at her to see her rubbing a whetstone on the edge of the imperial gold spear from where she sat, looking upset that she lost but nothing more. I was pretty sure Percy was holding back there as he was still yet to break a single drop of sweat.

He picked up the xiphos sword and raised them both in the air as the crowd suddenly roared and forgot about the whole 'Insult him because he's a Greek' thing.

"Don't get cocky cause you beat a couple of girls!" Called one arrogant centurion.

"Yea those cohort five girls aren't worth shit when compared to the rest of the legion!" Called another.

"Cohort five can't do shit!"

"Oh yea? Well, I have an idea that might make a better show then! How about all eight of you lackeys, fight me and Zoë? Or are you too scared?" He questioned and I would have mistaken it for arrogance if I didn't know the extent of his abilities.

Octavian looked a little shaken but somehow summed up the courage to retort, "Oh we don't need that! It's your own death sentence! Are you sure you want to?"

This time Zoe stood and yelled, "What? Art thou scared Octavian? Doth thou quail in fear as we threaten thee! Thine words are false! It won't be our death sentence but thine own one!"

Reyna stepped in, "It is settled! Zoë and Perseus shall fight the centurions of cohorts one to four!"


	7. 7: A Chance to Right Things

**(AN So people were mentioning a few things and I know all that. Yes Luke is younger than he should be but that is also part of the story. It's part of the story just wait and find out. Of course Percy would kiss her in battle! He's daring and a joker! As for the whole Juno thing... That is explained later. /AN)**

 **(AN2 Maybe some people should read all the chapters before commenting that Luke is younger... /AN2)**

Chapter 7: A Chance to Right Things?

Luke's POV

Ok, as if waking up on a school bus with no memories was bad enough apparently this psychotic midget is after blood. He took one look at me and decided that he wanted to kill me. I'm feeling the love!

So apparently I'm not the only person in this situation which I am thankful for. Some guy called Jason was sitting behind me and he too has no memories and was sentenced to deaths row by Coach Hedge Trimmer.

A girl sitting next to me is apparently my girlfriend but I was sure as Hades that she was not. Wait Hades? What?

We had just arrived at the grand canyon and apparently the coach chose our pairs. I was paired with Leo while Piper was paired with some asshole called Dylan who kept trying to feel her up. Even if she wasn't my girlfriend, I just knew I hated chauvinistic pigs. Jason was the last leftover person and ended up being paired with Hedge Trimmer himself.

I walked along, barely listening to Leo's rather funny jokes. Not that I didn't like jokes, I just didn't have time for them.

When got onto the skywalk, HT (Coach Hedge Trimmer) allowed us to roam freely. I told Leo that I needed to speak to HT and wandered over to find him and Jason talking about something.

"Who are you? I haven't seen you or that other punk ever in my life! My job was going well until you showed up! And now everyone is acting like they know you." HT was snarling at Jason furiously.

"I got no idea! Luke and I both woke up without any memories. I was hoping maybe you would know something." Jason responded.

"Luke? What is his last name? You guys might be the special package the guys back at camp were talking about." I don't know why but I felt that if I should come to find out my last name I should not reveal it until the time is right.

The storms were getting worse and worse to the point of super strong winds that forced us back inside. As we moved back toward the door though, That asshole Dylan shut the door before turning on us with a devilish and maniacal smile, Leo, Piper, Jason, HT and I were stuck on the skywalk.

The people inside were desperately trying to open the door to let us in, but all to no avail.

"Hello demigods. Our mistress would be very pleased about the capture of these two..." He pointed at Jason then me. He started smoking and suddenly burst.

"He's a Ventus!" shouted Jason over the wind, but that name made me stop.

"No! He's an Anemi!" I had no idea where I got the name from but it just seemed right.

"Whatever!" I looked at Jason to see him playing with a gold coin.

"Dang, is that gold? Bro you've been holding out on me!" Leo marveled at the coin rather stupidly. There is a high possibility of us all getting killed and he focuses on a damn coin.

"Not now Leo!" Jason snapped.

"Yes, not now Leo." Said Dylan evilly and he raised a hand towards Leo and sent a massive jet of wind at him blowing Leo over the side. Lucky for him, he was caught on a branch.

HT chucked me his baseball bat, "You lot keep that thing busy, I'll get Leo!" He then proceeded to start stripping him pants off... What?

"You're half doggie?" Cried Piper loudly.

"I'm half goat!" Said HT before he proceeded to climb down the cliff face.

I picked the baseball bat up but found it was actually a club with twigs and leaves on it as if it were cut directly from a tree. I looked at Jason to see him flip the coin and it suddenly turned into a gladius sword made out of gold.

We advanced toward Dylan but three more Anemoi descended from the skies and landed next to him.

"What are you going to do, little demigods?" They all taunted at the same time.

"This!" Jason stepped forward and stabbed one of the Anemoi while I clubbed another over the head.

"I like the way you think Jason!" I shouted gleefully. The adrenaline pumped through my veins as the two storm spirits disintegrated.

"No! My brothers! You will pay!" Dylan cried as Jason killed the third. HT had clamber over the edge with Leo on his back.

He dropped Leo like a sack of flour and got into a combat. "You will fear me! Wait where are they? Come on, can't you boys leave some for me?" He saw the three piles of dust next to Dylan. Dylan raised a hand towards Piper who was shaking in fear and blasted her off the edge.

"Go on cupcake, save her! I got this!" The goat screamed at me.

The old goat must have been mad but I had to be crazier as I found myself sprinting and jumping.

I knew that if I spread my arms and legs it would slow me down even if only minimally. I needed avery bit of speed I could get to catch up with Piper. Soon I found my self falling nose first towards her. As soon as I caught up to her I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her in.

This was it. I was going to die. But then a word popped into my mind and I had no idea why but I screamed it at the top of my voice, "Maia!"

After a couple seconds I found that our speed was decreasing. I looked down and freaked out when I saw than my sneakers had sprouted wings.

"Uh Luke? Are we dead yet?" Piper asked. We were two seconds away from being pancakes on the ground.

"Uh no..."

She opened her eyes to see that we were literally meters away from hitting the ground. But her eyes widened when she saw my shoes, "Where did you get those shoes?"

"Actually I don't know." I flew us up and landed to see Leo and HT being dragged away. I set Piper down and saw HT mindlessly beating the Anemi as he was being dragged up. Jason flew up but I saw that he didn't have winged shoes. He managed to pull Leo away. I flew up and tried to grab HT but the Anemi disappeared with him. The localized storm dissipated and the day looked normal.

I landed with Jason and Leo, Leo was ranting, "You guys can fly! Awesome!"

"Well Jason can fly apparently, but I have no idea how. Whereas I have winged shoes." I explained but was a bit perplexed by Jason's ability to fly.

"Winged shoes? Awesome, where can I buy those? Maybe I can make some myself..."

Leo didn't even notice that Hedge Trimmer was missing until Piper pointed it out, "Hey guys where is Coach Hedge... Are those flying horses? What the hell is going on!"

I thought she was crazy but looked in the direction she was pointing at. Sure enough there were winged horses pulling a flying chariot towards us.

"Um, I was talking to coach and he said something about some camp coming to pick me and Luke up... I don't know about you guys... I guess since your apparently a demigod too."

"Cool some I'm like half god?"

"Shut it repair boy!" Piper snapped at Leo's annoying antics. The chariot closed in and landed near us.

A girl of about seventeen or eighteen hopped out and growled at Jason when she saw that he had only one shoe, "Where is he?"

"What?"

"Where is Percy? She told us that the boy with one shoe would be the key to finding him. Where is he!" The girl snarled as she pulled on her necklace; summoning a spear that crackled with electricity.

"I don't know no Percy, I don't even remember my last name!" Jason snapped back.

The girl growled a bit and they shoved her spear towards me, "And you! You look just like that traitor! Tell me, does your name begin with 'Luke' and end with 'Castellan'?"

"Uh, I don't even remember my own name either..." I stuttered out but couldn't help but think that the girl looked slightly familiar. She narrowed her eyes but put the spear away.

She looked at the boy who was in the chariot with her, "Lets take these half-bloods back to camp."

"Come on guys! Hop in!" The boy said rather calmly.

"Oh, no way am I getting in a chariot with her! She looks like she wants to kill me!" I said, trembling slightly with fear.

"Don't mind her. She's like that with everyone. Things have been more stressful for her having to lead camp because the polemarchos has disappeared. Just get in we'll explain things on the way. This skywalk can't hold for much longer and those Anemoi are going to come back." He said coolly.

I saw Leo, Piper and Jason hopping in and decided to trust them. We took off right as the skywalk collapsed. Probably because the girl decided to drive her spear into it because of her frustrations.

"So... What's this camp like?" I asked hoping not to provoke a reaction.

"Chaotic. The lack of a leader right now just makes it worse. He's the only person who could handle the stress. It's only made worse by his idiotic half-brother trying to usurp his command. Hold on tight, they are catching up so we are going to shoot for light-speed and get to camp faster."

Without saying another word we all held on as he pushed a button that made the chariot shoot forward. Suddenly we dropped out of light speed but we were heading right towards a lake.

"Crap!"

There was a massive crash as we all hit the water. Apparently people fall out of the sky into the lake all the time because immediately people started rushing about as if there was a protocol for this.

Some kids came out with giant bronze leaf blowers that blew us dry in seconds while others pulled the chariot and pegasi out of the water.

"Well, not the best way to enter but welcome to camp!" The boy said and flinched when the girl started growling at him and screaming abuse.

A voice rang out from the crowd of people, "Clarisse! I told you that you could borrow the chariot, not wreck it!"

"Blame Butch, he was steering!" 'Clarisse' told the angry camper.

"Hey! I'll get it fixed!" 'Butch' complained.

"You better!"

"Uh guys hate to break this little make out session up, but can you explain to us what the hell is going on?" Leo said half jokingly and bewildered.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. The only safe place in the world for people like us. Enjoy your stay." A kid said blandly.

"Half-Blood? What kind of sick joke is that!" Piper screamed and I remembered some people were insulting her about being half native American.

"It's not an insult Piper. They mean half-blood as in half human, half god. Like a demigod." Jason explained and the campers looked surprised.

"You seem to know a lot. You guys look a bit old to have not come here before. Why have the gods not claimed you yet?" All the campers looked at us but I saw most of them were giving me hateful glares and frowns. Suddenly a hologram erupted above Leo. I was a flaming hammer.

"That is claiming." One camper said simply.

"That's the symbol of Vulcan." Jason said and I don't know why but I immediately snapped at him.

"Hephaestus."

"What?" Jason asked confused.

"He's right. It's Hephaestus. We don't call him Vulcan, thats his Roman name and we call them by their original names."

"I am not a Vulcan, I don't even like Star Trek!" Leo cried out and everyone laughed.

"Come on mr Spock. I'll show you our cabin and siblings." Said another camper before dragging Leo off.

Everyone stared at me and I realized I too had been claimed. As I looked up I saw a Caduceus.

"Mercury…" Jason mumbled.

"Hermes! Come on brother! We'll show you to our place!" Some twins dragged me away.

"So what's your name bro?" One twin asked.

"Uh I don't remember. I lost all my memories but apparently, according to Piper and Leo it's Luke." I looked at them as they their expressions darkened.

"Luke? How is that possible? You look exactly like him. Scar and everything. Except he was older…" One of the twins said.

"I have no idea…" I trailed off trying to search to see if I have any memories.

"Well, if you are _the Luke_ I'm sure this means that the gods have given you a chance at redemption for your actions. That must be why they wiped your memories." One twin said.

"Uh… So what are your names?" I decided to move the topic on.

"Connor Stoll"

"Travis Stoll"

"What do you mean by my actions?" I queried wanting to find out more about my possible self.

"Well, the last war Luke Castellan was a traitor and fought for Kronos to end the gods but in the end he chose our side. Percy thought that was enough for him to be called a hero and he got into Elysium but lots of people say that he needs to do more to deserve it. A lot of souls have been going missing from the Underworld so the gods could have taken advantage of that to give him a second chance and that second chance could be you." Travis explained.

"Anyway, here is your new home. It's the Hermes cabin, with us! If it is you Luke then its good to have you back. You were always a good brother to us before you…" Connor trailed off as if he didn't want to say it and I understood that he didn't want to call me a traitor so I just nodded.

Travis took a leather necklace out of his pocket and told me, "Oh yea and this is you new equipment for war."

I looked at the necklace confused as he handed it to me. I saw one on his neck but it had beads around it. "So I'm expected to use a necklace as a weapon?"

"No just put it on and pull it." I looked down confused as I stared at the leather band. I decided to do what he said. A couple seconds after I pulled it I was covered in armor with a shield on one arm and a spear in my other hand.

"Whoah…"

"Whoah indeed… It comes complete with a helmet, shield, spear, sword, linen armor, greaves and war sandals." Connor explained, "They used to be normal necklaces where you add beads for each year but after the gods militarized the camp they enchanted all of them to give us full hoplite sets of armor. You can replace the weapons and armor that come standard with better ones if you have any. If you want to summon only one thing you just imagine that item while you pull the necklace. Pretty neat, huh?" I looked at the shield and saw the symbol of Hermes on it, a Caduceus. I pulled on the necklace again and everything disappeared while my normal clothes returned.

I gave my two brothers a toothy grin. This was going to be awesome.


	8. 8: Surprise

Chapter 8: Surprise!  
Zoë's POV

I flushed bright red as I stumbled away from Percy. I had no idea he could fight so well and I could tell he was holding back on me. I certainly was not trained in the arts of hoplite combat but I was not unfamiliar to it. In fact in Sparta I had pretended to be a male and trained in the arts of hoplite combat for fifty years but somehow in five years Percy had learnt to become more skilled than me. I had no doubt that if Percy had his memories and knowledge he would be even more skilled. All of his combat was probably instinctual.

I remembered that I still had Anaklusmos so I tossed it back to him. I barely even noticed how he played dirty to win the fight as I dwelled on his skills in combat. I took a whetstone out of my pocket as I sat down and began mindlessly sharpening the imperial gold doru (Greek style) spear. After living for millennia sharpening becomes quite a hobby and you learn exactly how to do it. I very quickly sharpened the spear before moving on to an imperial gold xiphos that I picked up from the armory.

The Romans used to use these Greek style swords but they eventually made their own gladius style swords. This xiphos looks to have some age and was probably left in the armory to collect dust ever since the Romans changed to the gladius. Another sign that it was definitely from before the gladius was its perfect balance. When it came to swords I liked the balance in much the same place as the average person and this was balanced just like my sword was and just like how the ancient Greeks and Romans did it. If a Roman nowadays were to forge a xiphos they would get the balance all wrong for the average person due to lack of knowledge they had in Greek weaponry. Most Greek style imperial gold weaponry had been melted to make newer weapons after Michael Varus rather foolishly went to Alaska and lost almost all of their imperial gold. The Romans lost about nine-tenths of their imperial gold that year and now had to make their armor out of mortal steel. In fact it was purely by chance that I managed to find an imperial gold xiphos sword and doru spear with perfect balance. More was the surprise that the entire spear was made of imperial gold. Perhaps I would keep this spear and xiphos…

The helm I had chosen was a mortal steel Corinthian helm and the shield was a now shattered, battered wooden aspis. The Romans would never admit it but they still had minimal respect for the Greeks for being the first to have an organized army and formation system and so they kept a few Greek things. Like Percy I wore a linothorax (AN I don't know how to explain. Look it up, its like a tunic made out of layered linen hardened with linseed oil /AN) but mine was a Roman one. There was in fact no difference between the Greek and Roman ones except for a small change in design patterns. Many soldiers preferred the lightweight linen to the heavy metal cuirass and the hardened linen made them almost as tough as the metal ones. My greaves were steel while his entire set was made of celestial bronze (minus the linothorax).

Honestly if I hadn't seen Percy wearing hoplite uniform I wouldn't have chosen to put on a show and do the same. Most of my armor was rather rubbish and only really could be used for training as Percy had demonstrated by shattering my shield.

"Don't get cocky cause you beat a couple of girls!" Called an arrogant centurion and it made my blood boil.

"Yea those cohort five girls aren't worth shit when compared to the rest of the legion!" Called another.

"Cohort five can't do shit!"

My blood was steaming and I was about to retort but Percy beat me to it with a rather good idea, "Oh yea? Well, I have an idea that might make a better show then! How about all eight of you lackeys, fight me and Zoë? Or are you too scared?" Were it not that I knew how extensive his skills were I would have thought him arrogant.

Octavian looked a little shaken but somehow summed up the courage to retort, "Oh we don't need that! It's your own death sentence! Are you sure you want to?

This time I stood and yelled, "What? Art thou scared Octavian? Doth thou quail in fear as we threaten thee! Thine words are false! It won't be our death sentence but thine own one!"

Reyna stood up and called, "It is settled! Zoë and Perseus shall fight the centurions of cohorts one to four!"

If truth be told, I was shaken. We two were facing all eight of cohorts one to fours centurions and those aren't great odds. All of them were great fighters… except for Octavian and we would have a hard time, though I still believed that we could.

"You have half an hour to prepare, I have a feeling this will be interesting" Reyna stated and I saw Percy walking over to me.

"What's the plan?" He asked and then he blushed slightly, "Oh and don't kill me for that kiss, I just wanted to win."

"Win?" I raised an eyebrow.

"The fight" He stated simply.

"Ok, thou doth not have to worry, but if thee makes another move on me I can't guarantee your safety though." I threatened and he flinched.

"Ok… what's the plan?" He repeated.

"Two man phalanx maybe?" I replied, knowing that he's Greek and he would understand even if he didn't know why.

"Sure! You're going to need a new shield though… sorry about that." He replied but seemed rather awkward for an unknown reason.

"Right, I'm going to run over to the armory and get one then." I darted off before he could say another word. There was only one aspis in the coliseum armory and I would have to sprint all the way to the barracks armory to get one. I made sure that I dropped the xiphos and spear on the ground to avoid any trouble from Terminus, he sure is a pain in the ass. It was a long way to the barracks and it was outside the Pomerian Line.

Luckily, as daughter of the Titan of Strength and Endurance I gained physical enhancement. I don't look like it but I am actually on par with that bastard Herakles himself in strength and only beaten by my father Atlas. His domain of endurance boosts my stamina and I could run a hundred miles without breaking a sweat. In fact, I was surprised that I was faltering to Percy during that fight. He may not have super strength like me but the curse of Achilles really upped his attacking power.

Herakles never actually took the sky from my father. That was just the lie he told to make it seem as if he did something powerful. For that lie he was dubbed the god of 'strength'. Percy was stronger than him as mortal, in fact Percy is the strongest non-Atlas mortal ever. Herakles would have been crushed under the weight of the sky while Percy wasn't. In fact even Luke Castellan and Annabeth were stronger than him. Most of Herakles's twelve labors were a lie, he had the help of tons of people. He would have been far to stupid to think of how to clean the Augean Stables on his own and even then he did a rotten job of it and pissed off the nymphs. He later killed king Augeas because he wouldn't give Herakles a tenth of the cattle, and it wasn't a goodwill act from Herakles for Phyleus.

The idiot couldn't hold a bow for the life of him, he was worse than Perseus and that is saying something. When Artemis' hunters shot all the gigantes in the first gigantomachy war, he sat back. When it came to last gigante which was Porphyrion he got a lucky shot and helped Zeus kill him. Zeus was blind to Artemis' insistence that we, the hunters, killed the rest and praised him a hero. He was the hero and role model of assholes and all the boys of nowadays look up to him and become assholes like him. Becoming god of strength is what granted him his supernatural strength but even then he was no match for Atlas and his children. Hera never made him mad, that was the story Zeus told so that he didn't seem like such a bad person. That was when she started getting really mad about Zeus's cheating. Thank the gods that he is basically imprisoned as the gatekeeper. Hera and Artemis long ago forced Zeus to revoke Herakles's domain as god of heroes and all of the council threatened war with Zeus if he put Herakles on the council as he had basically forced the eldest Olympian off so Dionysus could take her place. The room was filled with his illegitimate children of Zeus because of his arrogance and he refused to allow Triton, Hestia and Hades on the council when they were more deserving than Dionysus or Herakles.

… Getting off track and as I dwelled on these thoughts I had neared the armory. As I entered the building I looked around. There on the wall was another aspis, made out of wood but had a layer of steel plating on it. Useful for training but useless against monsters that don't use weapons. It was the best aspis in the armory so I grabbed it and slung it across my back.

I sprinted all the way back to the pomerian line but was met by an annoying voice, "Halt! No weapons in the city!"

"This is a shield dumbass!" I shouted at Terminus before making my way to the coliseum.

As I entered I saw Percy standing there, waiting. We still had another five minutes but he was already holding a ready position with his spear raised in an overarm grip.

Underarm is useless when it comes to fighting in a formation. You would just be blocked by your own shield and you would likely end up stabbing the guy behind you in the face. Overarm was great because it allowed you to stab the enemy over their shields and you could lock your phalanx's front line shield without the obstruction of spears.

I walke over to where I left my equipment and picked up the helm. I brushed dirt off of it before placing the purple plumed helm on my head. I next picked up the xiphos and thought that maybe it wasn't perfectly balanced. But I could fix that later. I was possibly the most skilled at smithing there. I sheathed it and unslung the shield before picking the spear up too.

"Into positions!" Reyna called as the coliseum quitened down. Percy looked over at me as I walked to him and readied my shield next to his and held up my spear. I noticed he didn't have Anaklusmos sheathed, instead it was a simple celestial bronze xiphos.

I looked at the centurions and saw that they had six playing legionnaires making two rows of three. Behind them stood the archers.

"Begin!"

The front three immediately launched their pila at us before drawing their swords. The back three held on their pila and rested them on top of the rectangular shields of the front three as they advanced forwards. They planned on using their javelins as spears.

The pila fell patheically short of us as the archers began firing at us from behind the small melée force. The archers were rather pathetic and I wondered how any of these people made it into the 'better' cohorts and achieved rank of centurion. All things I said earlier about them being good were out of the window. We will crush them.

"On my word we hide our heads bodies behind our shield for protection against the high raised pila and we charge. It should force them down." Percy said quietly to me as we stood watching them approach.

"Ok." I replied simply.

We waited and I wondered if Perseus had fallen asleep standing up. The legionnaires were meters away when the word "Go" came and we both ducked and charged. As we slammed into their shields the pila tried desperately to stab us but ducking proved effective. We forced the front line to the ground sprawling as the second line stumbled back and launched their pila... over us. They all had their swords drawn now so we both advanced and used the reach of the spear to our advantage. Percy thrust the spear into the shoulder of one person while I stabbed another in the foot. Nothing too serious, but enough to make them run crying out of the fight. The third backed up towards the archers.

From behind us the centurions were getting up and were it not for their shadows, we would not have noticed. We could not turn our backs on the archers so I ran right as Percy ran left, both of us had our shields facing the archers as we ran to the sides of the rising centurions. We charged at the two on the sides and shoved them both into the middle one. Their heads all collided as they fell to the ground groaning, temporarily incapacitated and the fight with them was not over.

We turned our attention back to the lone centurion standing guard in front of the two archers. I looked at Percy to see he had dropped his spear and shield and was gathering two small balls of fire in his hands. Small enough to hurt and burn a little but nothing more. I wondered where he got that ability though, last I checked, Poseidon did not have powers over fire. He morphed the fire into the shape of throwing knives before launching them at the archers. The 'knives' struck their bows which were incinerated in seconds while Perseus picked up his spear but not his shield.

He signalled me to wait as he wandered over to the lone ranger.

"Y'all here from this part o' town?" he said loudly in a fake country accent and everyone snickered..

"What do you mean punk?" The centurion spat out.

"If yer not from round here then get the Hades outta here!" Perseus said still in country but the Greek name for Pluto slipped out. He then held his celestial bronze spear like a baseball bat and smashed the centurion's face in, effectively knocking him out. He then spun around and threw the spear right at a centurion I didn't even realize had risen, impaling his shoulder as well. The centurion screamed as he pulled it out and stumbled off the to side. Percy then unsheathed his xiphos and threw it at a centurion's crotch who I realised was looking directly up my linothorax skirt. He cried out in pain and agony as the xiphos severed his manhood from his body.

The last centurion rose. It was Mark, the son of Ares and current second best in camp at single combat after me. Percy walked over to me, summoned the trident and passed it to me as I let the spear and shield fall to the ground. He stood there with a look of scrutiny as Mark drew two Gladii.

As daughter of Pleione I was a natural with a trident but I had spent far mor time honing other weapons. Even though both of my parents disowned me I still retained the physical powers. Strength and Endurance from Atlas, skill with a trident and performance in water based sports such as sailing and swimming from Pleione. They could not be taken but magical powers such as water control and wind control (Pleione is the goddess of sailing and sailing involves wind) were revoked.

Mark held his two gladii in ready position as I casually strode up in front of him. He charged at me and slashed outwards so I couldn't sidestep. As he knocked me to the ground he somewhat purposely tumbled onto me. He leaned forward as if to try and kiss me but I punched him hard in the face. My superstrength sent him flying back a five meters.

He stood up and raised his two swords again saying, "Be like that, babe. Believe me when I say I will have you. I always get what I want. I like them feisty anyway."

Water rose from a puddle next to him and solidified into an ice hand that slapped him upside the head sending back another couple meters. Still he refused to stay down. Percy picked up the fallen trident before charging the centurion.

The met in a clash of spark. Percy met every single slash with the trident. Not a single cut made it past the trident. Even then I could tell Percy was holding back and was toying with him.

Mark swung down at Perseus with both swords but both were caught in between the three spikes. Percy forced Mark backward a bit before making a single cut on Mark's face that sent him crying in agony as if he was being tortured. My eyes widened as I thought the gods would remove that propety before giving it to him.

Percy held the trident at his neck before stating calmly, "Do you yield?"

Marl nodded and gulped a bit. He stumbled out of the coliseum stage. The whole crowd was silent as they looked down on me and Percy.

"It seems that he passed. Done only once before by Zoë Nightshade." most people just looked in shock as they made to leave the coliseum but Reyna cried out again, "Wait! I have another challenge for him!"

That sent whispers through the arena as everyone sat down. I made my way to my seat. Once everyone was seated Reyna jumped down and drew a celestial bronze gladius; the only celestial bronze weapon in the legion that wasn't mine or Percy's. It was definitely a powerful sword as it was used by the Romulus himself and passed down to whoever was in charge and it morphed itself to whatever the current most popular sword in Rome is. Percy tugged on his necklace, all of his equipment dissapeared leaving him standin with normal clothes on and holding just a Anaklusmos.

Romulus's sword may be powerful but it was no match for the symbol of a god. Reyna held herself in a perfect ready position but anyone could tell that Percy was the more confident.

"Begin!" Juno shouted and immediately both charged at beach other. Reyna was unfamiliar with Percy's Greek style while he has no mental memories so he just went with his instinct and muscle memory.

Reyna attempted a stab at Percy who just parried it but then time literally seemed to slow down for me. Percy and I moved at normal speed while everything else in the coliseum seed to be slower. The it hit me as hid sword glowed golden, that he used time to slow her everything down but as a goddess of time it didn't affect me in even the slightest bit. He unleashed a flurry of slashes and Reyna could not move fast enough to defend herself. She probably thinks he just went at an impossibly fast speed. I chuckled inwardly as Percy relased his hold on time flows and Reyna stumbled backwards, stunned. He darted forward and held his sword at her neck as she nodded and called out, "Ladies and Gentlemen, that is Perseus Jackson! Will all centurions please assemble here now."

I stood up and saw that Gwen looked dejected. She probably thought that such a good recruit would not choose five but I knew better than that, "Gwen don't worry, I know Percy, he'll choose fifth. He prefers to prove himself instead of steal it from the beginning." I reassured but I wan't so sure how new, memory loss Percy would act. I hoped that Percy would join me though.

"You know him? That explains him not dying for that kiss." she replied with a knowing look on her face.

Damn I let that slip, "Uh, long story. Thou shall be told later..."

We all lined in front of Reyna and Percy as Reyna spoke, "Recruit, since you passed you shall be accepted into any cohort you with.

"Any..." he muttered. Mark let out a smile thinking he knew what Percy would do. He grinned and Gwen groaned, choking back a sob but was surprised when she heard, "I choose Fifth."

Mark then suddenly burst out, "What?They're terrible! You can't choose them! You belong with First!"

Percy let out a humorless laugh and stated, "Yet they had the toughest two centurions to fight. I repeat I choose Fifth!"

"I accept." Gwen blurted out, not wanting to miss an opputunity. The two best recruits Rome had ever seen had joined her.

"Very well, Percy you shall be put on Probatio and..." Reyna stopped suddenly as Juno whispered something in her ear. Her mouth dropped wide open but she shook off the shocked face and said, "Juno has informed me of your five years of service to Olympus directly and has asked that you be given full membership with five bars of service. Step forwards and hold out your arm."

"Wait!" A wiry kid named Octavian stepped forward. Oh crap, I could not let him read Percy's past. Mine was not a problem because my life was so long he just saw me hunting with Artemis but Percy's was short and he could not be allowed to find out about the Greeks yet.

"Problem Octavian?" Reyna snarled. No one really liked him.

"Yes, I must Consult the Augeries first."

I stepped in there, "Let me handle this Reyna. Octavian last I heard, the word of the praetor overrules thine own word and is only overruled by the gods. There's your god."

"Yes but I must be sure as, no offence intended my lady, but the gods have tried to get us all killed before." Octavian said rather stupidly, directly insulting an Olympian.

Before Juno could retort however I stepped in again with a plan of my own to get rid of Octavian for good, "Ok, well thou is a centurion and an auger correct?" he nodded pridefull, "Well doesn't there have to be another auger present then, to determine his approval?"

"No need for that, I am a descendant of Apollo the awesome himself! The only other auger capable is retired now anyways..."

"Hmm, well Gwen here is a daughter of Apollo. She is as able to divine the will of the gods as anyone else."

"No that would conflict as she wants to accept him so she could swing it in her favor."

"That can't be a factor. What about she stands in as a representative of the senate? To avoid calling the senate altogether, she would act as both senator and auger to overlook." everyone was giving her weird looks as she tried to stop Percy from being read.

"I hope you don't mean I should give up my position as centurion to help Percy for no reason!" Gwen whispered angrily in her ear.

"Shut up! I'm going to take Octavian down for good!" I whispered back sternely.

"No need for that, I am also a senator, I can represent the senate as I read the Augeries."

I smiled a little. The trap was working, "Ah you see there is a problem with that Centurion Octavian."

"What?"

No one else would know but Juno would be able to clarify, "See Octavian, I was thinking last night about law and I realized something. I realized that thou hast actually committed treason yourself. According to laws laid down by thine namesake Octavian Augustus Caesar, no man could hold more than two seats of power and respect in order to prevent a total dictatorship like that of Julius Caesar." I smiled as color left his face, "The senate, the praetor and a few other positions like that of the Augur were meant to be a system of checks and powers to prevent any one position from overpowering another. I know of thine plan and it is seen as an act of treason. Steps toward the monopoly of power. Thou intend to hold all of these positions and overpower anyone else. There is a reason praetors give up their role as centurion and it is to avoid this. Thou currently hold three seats of power and respect: Auger, Centurion and senator and intend to hold more. So I Zoë Nightshade, daughter of Diana accuse Centurion Octavian with treason and you all know what the penalty for that is."

Everyone stared at Zoë in shock. She had literally sentenced a man to death and didn't seem to care much about his death. Then everyone turned to Juno who simply nodded.

"How would you know this? Why would you look back to ancient forgotten laws?Perhaps you are a danger to Rome!" Octavian stated but no one trusted him anymore.

"I lived through the rise and fall of Rome dumbass. Thou of all people should know that Diana's hunters get partial immortality. Take him away." I stated calmly. That arrogant thorn was finally gone, and Reyna looked relieved. A couple legionnaires in the stands put cuffs on Octavian and forced him to sit down.

"On with the memership then. Five bars of service for your direct service to Olympus. I knew I saw you somewhere before!" She finally continued, "Hold your arm out."

Percy held his arm out and allthe senators in the arena chanted, "Senatus Populusque Romanus!"

I looked at Percy's face and eyes as the brand burned itself into his arm. He looked at it in fascination but not even a brief flicker of pain ran across his face and eyes. Even I felt it when I had it done. When completed he had an SPQR brand with an hourglass on it. In fact it was exactly the same as mine except he had four bars more than me. Technically I should have three thousand or so but that would be a bit crazy. I had wondered why my brand was an hourglass when I got it and I guess it was something to do with our domain.

"An hourglass? I thought you were a son of Neptune? In fact that's exactly the same as Zoë's brand!" Reyna was obviously extremely confused.

"As goddess of family and queen of gods I can testify that Percy and Zoë are not children of Kronos and are who they say, as in not traitors. A child of Neptune and an adopted child of Diana. That brand is for another reason that I cannot disclose right now." Juno said clearly so everyone could hear.

"Who's your real parent Zoë? You never tell us that! Are you sure your not a traitor?" Mark shouted accusingly.

"Perhaps I don't tell you that because my real parents disowned me so technically they are not my parents or family!" I snapped harshly. It was a secret I was going to hold for as long as possible.

"Please don't bother her about it, it gets really annoying when she kills people for bothering her." Juno said and the Romans nodded but they continued to look at me with distaste evident. I could practically see cogs turning as Octavian tried to come up with something to get me accused for before his sentence is served.

"Oh and, anyone else with more than two seats of power and respect better get rid of them before anyone finds out. Treason demands serious punishment!" I shouted and Reyna nodded approvingly.


	9. 9: Reunion

Chapter 9: Prophesies Jason's POV

So we had just arrived at camp and Luke and Leo were already claimed. According to the venti from earlier I'm a son of Jupiter. Sorry I mean son of Zeus. Piper was dragged off by some son of Athena while a girl that tries too hard too look good, took me to the big house, whatever that is.

So we neared a building and there were two people outside playing a card game. Sorry I mean person, as the other was half horse. I took a step forward and only the centaur noticed me. When he took one look at me he turned back to his game before stopping and slowly doing a double take.

"Great Scott! You should be dead!" He exclaimed rather rudely. Yes, I enjoy being told that I should be dead. Obviously!

"Err... What?" I rather intelligently said.

He looked down at my arm to see a tattoo that hadn't even noticed before. As soon as I saw it I felt the urge to run. I felt like I shouldn't be here.

The old horse said one thing when he saw the tattoo, "Oh."

The fat guy opposite him looked at me and also rather intelligently said, "Oh."

"Drew could you leave us please. We have to discuss something with him." The old horse told the girl who sauntered away, "Sit, we have much to discuss."

I pulled a chair from the side and sat down and began, "Look I have no idea who I am. According to the people I arrived at camp with, my name is Jason. I don't know about my last name."

"You have amnesia? That is going to make this even more problematic. I don't know what is going on but it looks like the work of the gods. They told us you were dead but perhaps not. Your last name is Grace, Jason Grace, I know that much. Your sister is actually in camp at the moment, Thalia Grace, and she is convinced that you were killed at a young age by Lady Hera. Do you happen to have any form of weapon on you at the moment? Oh and you can call me Chiron." He said and seemed to have more knowldge of my real past then I myself do.

I took out a coin flipped it to get a golden gladius sword. Chiron looked at it with a raised eyebrow. "Interesting, I haven't seen many weapons of this metal. It confirms that the gods are trying something though..."

I flipped the sword and it landed in my hand as coin which I stowed away in a pocket, "It was in my pocket since I woke up. The only other thing was a picture of my apparent girlfriend." I took that out but he didn't seem to care much. But as soon as he saw the picture he grabbed it and stared at it intently before showing it to the fat guy. They whispered to each other quietly and I could only pick out a couple words; leader, swap, dangerous.

"Uh, everything alright there? Can I have the photo back now?" I asked and he hande it back, not without reading the back first.

"That is all, you may leave. You'll be in the Zeus cabin and at campfire we shall determine what lochos you are to join." He explained and so I left to hunt down the Zeus cabin. I asked a camper where to go and very quickly found my way there.

I took a deep breath before stepping through the door to be greet by a goth girl with black hair and electric blue eyes gutting a dummy ruthlessly and violently with a spear.

"Um hello? Are you Thalia?" I asked cautiously, wondering how she will react to seeing her long lost brother.

She glared at me before spitting out the words, "Yeah! What do you want?"

I flinched an replied, "My name is Jason... I'm the new Zeus camper..."

Her eyes narrowed but then softened, "Jason Grace?" I nodded, and she charged forward and tackled me with a crushing hug.

"They told me you were dead. I missed you so much Jason." She sobbed into my shoulder before regaining her composure. She reached into her pocket and fished out a leather band out before handing it to me and I returned with a questioning look, "That's your new armory." she explained.

"Um, you expect me to kill someone with a small leather band." I looked at her as if she was stupid.

"No, dummy! Put it on and tug it." I complied, expecting nothing to happen but after a second or two a full set of Greek hoplite armor and weapons replaced my own clothes.

"Cool!" I examined it to see that it was fitted perfectly to me. Then I tugged the necklace again and it all dissapeared.

"If you imagine just one aspect of the set and tug it you will get only that item. If you run into any better swords then you can swap the xiphos out for it, as long as it is a one-hand or hand-and-a-half sword and you are comfortable with it's style. Usually the standard issue is the best option as they are perfectly balanced for the user but some people swap them for different styles. The spear is the same but you can't swap the standard for a different style, only a better one of the same doru spear style." She explained more in depth giving me an idea.

I took out the coin before turning it into a sword. This time I concentrated on only summoning the scabbard. When it appeared I sheathed the gladius. My hand was about to dismiss the scabbard when Thalia asked, "Can I see that sword?"

"Sure."

As the gladius was drawn she frowned a bit. She took the sword from me and examined it, "I have never seen this metal before. And it's called Ivlivs. It probably belonged to Julius Caesar himself which would explain it being of a Roman shape."

I took the sword back and dismissed it when she said, "Come it's dinner time and you need to tell me where you've been all this time!"

"Ah well. That's the thing. I lost my memory. Amnesiac, if you will." I said to her before she looked at me with a frown but not stopping her stride.

As all the food arrived at the table I was about to dig in but saw people getting up and scraping food into a fire. Offerings for the gods. I dropped the best slice of my steak in and half of my potatoes before going back to the Zeus table.

There were several tables. While all the gods had cabins, not all had tables. Down the middle were the tables for all the major gods while on either side were two long tables that could both easily fit a hundred people each. They were the tables of the first and second lochos. All the children of minor gods sat at them and a lot of the children of major gods opted to sit there too. Both of those tables were crowded with about seventy people each while the major gods tables had about eighty people; twenty of which were Artemis's hunters. Thalia ate with me for a while but then she wandered off to sit at the hunters' table.

Overall it was quite a lively place and had a total current population of about two hundred, not including the hunters, demigods. The gods have been active.

The Hermes cabin dragged me to their table saying that Hermes was the god of traveller and anyone could sit with them.

"This place is awesome, right Jase?" Luke exclaimed as I looked at a lone kid on the Poseidon table.

"Hey why don't you guys invite him over?" I questioned. All the Hermes table glanced at who I was talking about before turning back with distaste evident on their faces.

"Because he's and arrogant asshole who tries to usurp his brother's position as polemarchos. He thinks that just because Poseidon personally delivered him to camp, that he should be praised as a hero and be given the highest honors. He thought that we should overthrow his brother and place him on the pinnacle as polemarchos just because Poseidon delivered him. Poseidon even said it himself that he was just keeping him safe. That arrogant fool is nothing like his brother. His water powers are low, fighting is horrendous and plus his personality is rotten!" A guy called Travis explained.

Then his twin Connor said, "He thinks that now that Percy is missing, that he could just assume command over our army. Clarisse gave him a good beat-down but he still refuses to believe that no one gives a damn about him except from the five friends he has. One time he had his lackeys beat down and attempt to rape a hunter. Percy saw them and before they could do it he beat them up and saved the hunter. They got twenty hard lashes but refuse to back down. One of these days they are going to get themselves killed."

My hatred for that boy grew as they said each word. He really did look like a nasty piece of work and I just continued to eat.

At campfire we all sang along. I zoned out a bit at one point and failed to notice Chiron saying, "Can the new campers please step out here. That would be Luke, Leo, Piper and Jason!"

I just stared blankly until Luke flicked my ear making me look up at him standing. We made our way to the campfire and we stood there. Suddenly, as Piper stood there, her entire attir changed into a Greek dress, and magical perfume and makeup floated around her face and applied it where needed. A hologram of a dove was floating above her head. Aphrodite, goddess of love. She looked pissed about the transformation so we decided to keep quiet about it.

"These four need to join a lochos. Who will accept them?"

One half of the crowd looked at us distastefully while another half was happy.

A girl stood up from the smiling half, "I Clarisse La Rue, lochagos of the first lochos would be happy to accept them all, seeing as the other lochos doesn't want them."

"Very well, all four of them shall join the first lochos of the first mora of Olympus." Chiron annouced loudly before fishing out four metal tags with the number one on them and telling us to hang them on our necklaces as access keys to the first lochos training complex.

Suddenly a red-haired girl walked over to me and her eyes glowed green as smoke billowed from her mouth and encircled all four of us.

Then she began talking in a raspy voice,

"Child of Lightning, beware the earth,

The giants' revenge the octo shall birth,

The forge and dove shall break the cage,

And death unleash, through Hera's rage,

Lone lightning's thief shall find his way,

To where lost Neptune's son and standards lay."

The girl suddenly collapsed and everyone stared at the four of us in shock. I caught her before setting her down gently.

"What was that?" I wondered out loud.

"A prophecy for the four of you. Your going on a quest! You leave at noon tommorow after your first basic weapons class. It sounds big, tied to the Great Prophecy even. I fear For what Percy shall have to do as he controls both storm and fire..." Chiron said and sounded worried. I wonder just how important this Percy guy will be.

"What is the Great Prophecy?" Leo asked.

The girl spoke up again but sounded normal now,

"Seven half-bloods shall answer the call.

To storm or fire, the world must fall.

An oath to keep with a final breath,

And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death."

Recognition flared through my mind but I had no idea why. "To storm or fire the world must fall... That doesn't sound good but how does that affect this guy Percy?" I asked

"Because he controls both fire and storms. It probably won't be a good thing if the world ends. We'll see though..." Chiron said with a faraway look.

"Controls fire? Like this?" Leo's hand suddenly caught on fire before he extinguished it at will.

"Well yes but his fire is hotter as he is pure of heart and soul. In fact his soul is so pure that his fire burns blue which is the purest flame color an everyone knows that blue flames are hotter than orange, yellow or red." States Chiron half proudly but also half worried. 


	10. 10: Kidnapped

(AN In the book Percy arrives at camp Jupiter months after Jason arrives at CHB. In this he arrives at the same time and Juno is captured after he is introduced. Both him and Jason will go on two quests instead of one. /AN)

Chapter 10: Kidnapped Percy's POV

I stood there dumbfounded. I had no idea why Zoë was so desperate to prevent Octavian from reading my auguries. All I knew is that the arrogant ass would finally be out of my way.

It helped that when everyone started asking me questions like, where are you from or how did you learn to fight, that I always had one simple answer; I don't know. Everything I did was purely instinctual and muscle memory. It all just came to me naturally, especially my trident combat. I had no idea why but I just seemed to move and fight as if I had done it for my whole life, and when I heard that I had five years of service directly to Olympus, I began to believe that perhaps I had done it my whole life.

I looked at my brand and wondered why it was in the shape of an hourglass if I am the child of Poseidon. In the end I came to the conclusion that it must have something to do with my past. I looked at Zoë and wondered how much she knew about my past because she acted strangely and for some reason I trusted her with my life.

We sat next to each other in the mess hall and a chubby Chinese-Canadian kid and a Kool-Aid freak sat across from us. Frank Zhang and Dakota.

"Dude stop drinking wine!" Zoë joked heartily.

"It's not wine! Its Kool-Aid with triple the sugar!" Dakota grumbled drunkenly.

"Then how are you drunk?" I queried.

"Sugar + ADHD + Dyslexia = Drunk. Do the math dumbo!" Dakota slurred out and we laughed at how stupid that sounded.

"So Frank, I'm like your great times a hundred uncle! How does that make you feel?" I joked lightheartedly.

"Weird. It makes me feel like a freak." He said and that confused me.

"Why? Come on, its awesome!" Frank just looked down and shook his head. I was about to get up but was stopped as a flying plate almost smashed into my face. In the mess hall the food darts around carried by some kind of wind nymphs to people who want to eat. It was chaotic and if you stood up you risked getting your face smashed in by a flying plate.

A faun stumbled over to me and asked, "Hey new guy, my name is Don, do you have spare change?"

"Um... No sorry." I stopped as the guy started sniffing me, "uh, what are you doing?"

"Dude... You have an empathy link with a faun!" Don cried out and Zoë looked alarmed.

"What? Whats that?" I asked confused but I felt as if there was a gap in my memory.

"Its a–" He began but was cut off.

"Just leave it Don!" Zoë snarled harshly.

Don stumbled off and I turned to Zoë and said, "Why are getting pissed off so easily. I mean you literally killed a guy earlier."

"He deserved it." She said simply and I wondered how bad of a person he was.

Frank chipped in and said, "She's right. Octavian has been trying to play dictator for ages. Reyna looked relieved to be rid of him, as are half of the legion. They will be crucifying him later on, the worst punishment for high treason. Nobody likes to watch executions anymore though. I don't understand why Octavian reading your augurs would provoke such a reaction though."

I nodded and then Zoë stood and announced, "I'm going for a walk, alone."

We all frowned as she walked away. I watched her as she left and noticed that Mark pointed at her and his lackeys all got up and began to follow her slowly. My frown grew and I excused myself so that I could find out what they were doing. I saw Zoë leave the mess hall and Mark stalking behind her. My curiosity overtook me and I had to find out what was going on. I followed as Zoë left the barracks and Mark followed.

He couldn't be up to any good so I decided to stay out of sight as I followed him stalking her. I looked at Zoë and noticed that she glowed a silver color in the moonlight. I wondered to myself how any hunter could glow but still go unnoticed by animals. She looked even more beautiful than under the light of Apollo's chariot although that is to be expected of a daughter of Diana.

Before I could react, Mark and his lackeys grabbed Zoë. He took out an amulet and they all disappeared.

I stood their dumbfounded for a moment before rushing off back to the barracks screaming at the top of my voice, "Reyna! Reyna! Reyna!"

I saw Reyna leave the barracks and look around, probably wondering who was calling her name and I called to her again. She ran over to me and said, "What is it Percy?"

"Zoë was kidnapped by Mark!" I quickly replied.

"What do you mean? Why didn't you stop him?" She demanded before I could say any more.

"Let me finish! Mark and his lackeys grabbed her and teleported with some kind of amulet before I could do anything. She is a centurion, you have to call a senate meeting!" I spluttered out as quick as I could.

"Okay, take a breath and calm down, we'll call senate tomorrow, you'll have to be there." She said calmly before turning.

I wondered how she was able to be so calm about it before going to fifth cohort's building to sleep.

(Dream)

I stood on a mountain, overlooking San Francisco. It was a beautiful sight to see. I turned as I heard a struggle filled voice though, "So Mark, I see you have done your job well. You managed to captured Artemis, my traitorous daughter and that pathetic new lord of the wild. Now state your reward."

I saw the Mark and the rest of the traitors kneeling to a man holding something up, Atlas. Mark said, "I wish only for Zoë's hand in marriage."

"I will never like you, scumbag!" Zoë cried out from where she was chained with celestial bronze to a rock.

Atlas's gruff voice said, "Very well. When that sea scum is captured I shall give you her hand in marriage, whether she likes it or not!"

From beside her a woman with auburn colored hair and silver eyes wearing silver hunting fatigue yelled, "I warn you, Percy will not fail! He will prevail!"

"You said that last time about Zoë, Diana! She got killed, I wonder how it is she is alive now." Atlas taunted.

This time a faun that was chained on another rock spoke up but it was a whisper that only I could hear, "Percy! This empathy link won't last much longer. You have to save us! If I die you die because of the link! Hurry! Please! Wherever you are!"

(Dream ends)

I woke with a jolt and looked around. A bell rang and everyone started to groan and rise. Centurion Gwen ran up to me a said, "Percy! You're being called for a senate meeting."

I just nodded and was about to go get ready but then I stopped and asked, "Do I have to wear a bed sheet?"

Gwen chuckled, "No, thats only for senators. Its called a toga by the way! Hurry it's in fifteen minutes."

I rushed to get ready before sprinting to the city only to be stopped by the statue of Terminus, "No weapons past the Pomerian Line!" Quickly, without thinking I summoned all of my weapons and placed them on his assistant's tray before rushing off. I rushed to the senate house and entered just as the meeting began.

"Silentium! This meeting has been called because of an apparent traitorous centurion and a kidnapped centurions. Perseus step forward and explain." Reyna explained the situation to the senate before I stepped forward.

As I paced back and forth in front of the senate I began to explain, "Last night I was speaking with centurion Zoë and then she went for a walk. I saw that centurion Mark and a couple of his lackeys followed her and I was concerned for her own safety. She left the barracks and was making her way to the city when Mark and his lackeys attacked her. Before I could react, he pulled out an amulet and teleported them somewhere."

"And that is what he told me. As you can see neither centurion is present at the moment. Currently we do not have any leads—" Reyna began but I cut her off.

"Actually I have some leads. Last night when I went to sleep I had a dream—" I started but some senators snickered.

"Aww... Poor baby have nightmares?" All the senators except for Gwen and Reyna laughed and started mocking me. In my rage, my eyes caught with blue fire and I stomped on the ground causing a minor earthquake that shut the senators up.

"Let me finish!" I snapped, "Perhaps I should have started by saying that last night a faun found that I had an empathy link connection with another faun. Of course having no memories, I had no idea what he meant. But when I fell asleep, I had a dream. It was no ordinary dream, it was a empathy link dream with that faun. In it I saw that centurion Zoë, lady Diana and the faun who was called the Lord of the Wild, have been captured by servants of the Titan Atlas. He was—"

I was cut off as a bright flash appeared in the middle of the room and everyone averted their eyes. When the light died down everyone knelt to the god that stood in front of them. It was Apollo, god of the sun, poetry, music and light.

"Romans! I am here before you today because my little sister Diana has been kidnapped. I understand that you are having a senate meeting about this issue but I have come to give a quest for them!" Apollo annouced theatrically.

"Who will lead?"

"I will!"

"No! I'm the obvious best choice!"

The senators began bickering and I put a hand to my face in frustration. Apollo was trying to get their attention but was miserably failing so I allowed my whole body to be consumed with blue flames completely before stomping on the ground, sending a huge tremor around, effectively silencing them.

"Lord Apollo is trying speak. Show some respect!" I yelled with rage before I let the fire die down.

"Thank you Percy." He nodded appreciatively at me and I just nodded back, "The leader of this quest will be Perseus Jackson, son of Neptune, adopted son of Juno and champion of Vesta! He has more experience than all of you put together! Even if he can't remember it!"

A senator stood up, "But, my lord, he isn't a centurion!"

"It doesn't matter! My oracle has chosen him and him it shall be! I shall return in a moment with the oracle as you have killed the augur here. Not that he was truthful anyways..." Apollo disappearead into his true form again. All the senators gave me hateful, jealous looks.

A minute later Apollo returned with a red haired girl that looked familiar but I couldn't quite place it. When the girl looked at me her eyes widened in shock but she quickly regained her composure as her eyes began to glow green and green smoke billowed from her mouth.

Then the ancient raspy voice spoke, "I am Pythia, the oracle of Delphi. Step forward Perseus and ask."

I stepped into the green mist and said, "How can I save lady Diana?"

"To cursed mountain again he travels.

And three shall look as mysteries unravel,

To save the huntress they must pass the lair.

At sky's hold again the Titan's curse he must bear.

The Titan's blessing shall be bequeathed,

Time's gods fury shall be released.

When twin is caught the sands of time,

To the east shall travel to dragon's spine."

(AN Have you ever tried writing a good prophecy? No? Its freaking hard! This took me an hour to write. I had to come up with over a hundred plots so that I could find a good plot that I could make a decent prophecy from. The horror! /AN)

The girl collapsed as Apollo dissappeared with her once again before reappearing, "Well that's a bit annoying. It looks like I might get captured later on... Anyway there your prophecy you can choose two companions, good luck!"

Once again the sun god dissapeared an Reyna stood, "For now George son of Mars shall be centurion of the first cohort along with Sarah daughter of Apollo. If that is all, then meeting dismissed. You can all go to breakfast now."

As I left the senate house I saw that all of them except Reyna and Gwen, were glaring at me with looks of jealously and hate.

I had in mind two people that I wanted to bring along the quest so I ran all the way to the mess hall and to see a particular chubby nephew of mine.

"Frank! Nice to see you!" I exclaimed cheerfully.

"Hey Perce, how was the meeting?"

"It was good. Oh yeah, nephew I need to ask you if you want to do something really dangerous." I began.

"Sure, depends what though." Frank shyly said.

"I want you to be one of my companions on a quest. I'll explain later what it is, should you choose to accept." I explained hoping that he would accept.

"Second day and you already have a quest! Sure! I would love to be in on this!" Frank said as he scooped some potatoes into his mouth.

"Great! Now I just need to ask Hazel. Meet me with a packed bag of demigod essentials and your weapons outside our block at noon." 


	11. 11: Old Rivals

Chapter 11: Old Rivals Percy's POV

I had been practicing with the powers I was given. Somehow some came to me instictively while others I had to work on. One time I was accidentally consumed with flames in the middle of the mess hall but I held my ground. When the flames died down I was dangerously close to the Little Tiber and I immediately took a step back; crashing into someone.

"Oof! What the hell Jackson? How the hell did you do that?" The person, now identified as Reyna, shouted loudly.

"What?" I was confused out of my mind as to what just happened.

"You appeared out of nowhere in a burst of flames!" Reyna screeched.

"I have no idea. I was just consumed in flames at the mess hall and when I shut my eyes closed I somehow appeared here..." I explained with bewilderment.

"When are you leaving for your quest?"

"At noon in ten minutes so I must be off." I turned but Reyna grabbed my hand forcing me to turn back.

"You know Percy, I really could use another good praetor. In a few months time I hope that you can fill that spot. We could do great things together. There are other things that come with being a praetor. It's been almost a month since Jason disappeared so perhaps..." she trailed off and I realized what she was thinking.

"Sorry but I have to decline. I have no need for a relationship right now. What I need first is my memories. I have a feeling that I should know this praetor Jason but I don't remember and finding my memories could be the key to finding your lost boyfriend. I don't think he'd appreciate it if he found out you even considered cheating on him." I said before turning around and leaving a dumbfounded praetor standing behind. I stopped and remarked, "I do remember reading that the only women in Rome who wore togas were prostitutes. Perhaps you didn't mean it how I first thought and you meant I could pay for your body. Either way I won't have it."

I looked at her to see rage in her eyes, "Did you just accuse me of being a whore?"

"Actually, I believe I did. Take off that damned toga already and stop trying to 'get' with me." I turned around just as I saw her ripping the toga off with rage. I parted the river and walked across leaving a furious Reyna glaring daggers at me. I walked through the tunnel and waited outside of the camp.

It was obvious that Frank had a crush on Hazel but I was pretty sure she doesn't replicate those feelings. She has a look on her face that I see in the mirror everyday. From the small things I could glean from my lack of memories it was look of despair because of one who had lost someone they loved and thought would spend the rest of their days with them. True love they call it. I know vaguely that there was someone who I had lost of whom I loved; be it to treason, death or both. I felt sorry for my nephew knowing that he would never get what he wanted. I may not have my memories but I just know.

Frank and Hazel both came stumbling out of the tunnel. We originally decided to wait outside the barracks but I changed it later on to being right outside the camp to save time. The two guards who were on duty nodded to us but said nothing.

"Reyna was pissed. She was muttering curses about you in Latin for some reason." Frank said.

"Eh? Oh! Probably just because I called her a whore... Long story, nevermind." I quickly said.

"You called the praetor of the legion a whore?" One of the guards finally asked after a second or two of shocked silence.

"Yea. She was trying to seduce me and she wears a toga. The only women in Rome who are supposed to wear togas are prostitutes. I wasn't sure if she wanted me to pay or actually wanted to date me. Either way I would have said no." I explained and they all looked shocked.

"Dude! Are you gay or something? How can you refuse Reyna? She's the hottest badass in the world! It doesn't matter if it were all an act for her to sell her body, I would still tap that. So she's a whore, huh? Perhaps it's time our watch was replaced and we go check out the praetor and her prices." The guard and his mate rushed off through the tunnel. I could not believe their stupidity but guessed that they were probably sons of Mars.

"This is gonna end badly... Let's go before we have an angry praetor chasing us with phallic shaped weapons in hand." I joked before running off.

"Those sons of mars really are idiots aren't they?" Frank asked, "I really hope my parent is Apollo."

I just shook my head and walked off as Hazel and Frank scrambled to catch me she yelled, "Are you freaking kidding me? We're going to walk there?"

"How'd you guess? For a child of the big three and a legacy of the big three you guys are quite chubby. You can't work those muscles properly without getting rid of that baby fat." I explained without looking towards them.

"I'm not fat." I heard Frank grumble and I laughed.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night Frank." Hazel joked.

"You're one to talk Hazel." I said with a truthful tone to my voice.

"Hey! Since when were you the expert!" Hazel complained.

"You think walking that distance is hard? You should try running from east to west coast. It's not fun. That's not even hard compared to my Spartan training regime. You should see what it does to Aphrodite kids." I ramble but then stopped. I didn't remember any of this but it rolled off my tongue as if I had said it many times before.

"Spartan? Aphrodite? Seriously dude; what's with up with the Greek shit?" Frank was confused but when I looked at Hazel she didn't look confused at all.

"I don't know. It just rolled my Tongue. Like I said I have no memories." Frank went silent but I heard Hazel whisper to Frank that she would explain something to him later.

I suddenly felt an aura of hatred approaching and I yet again stopped and growled like a wolf. I just wanted to grab something and rip it to shreds but I managed to keep my temper under control.

"What is it Perce?" Hazel asks.

I saw a biker approaching us and I growled angrily, "Ares!"

"What did you call me you filfthy Greek?" The man snarled, "How the fuck do you even know about the Romans anyways punk? Oh and I'm Mars not Ares!"

"How's the ankle, Ares? Still sore from when I defeated you when I was twelve?" I had no idea what I was saying but it just spilled out of my subconciousness.

"Ares is nowhere near as poweful as me! You should not test me! I could crush you in seconds!" I snorted at that and sized him up. To be honest he didn't really look like much. He wore Canadian military uniform and had a large rifle slung over his back. Pinned to his chest was an excessive amount of grenades.

"Big talk for a small man! You want to test that?" I snarled and the other two were backing away while Frank was confused out of his mind. I knew Ares would not smite someone and preferred to fight them in combat.

"You have a small amount of respect from me time god! You don't want to lose it!" Ares snarled, "Besides I'm only here because my son is on this quest and I wanted you guys to have a mode of transport! Looks like now you'll have to duel me to get it!"

"Oh what? You going to put me in another 'humane' animal cargo truck?" I snarled.

"No! This is a car we're talking about!" Without warning he pulled the rifle off his back a turned it into a greatsword. I smirked as a scythe appeared in my hand. He just loosed a bit of imformation that I could possibly have powers over time, and if I did, I was going to use it.

I took a practice swipe before stepping forward. Frank's eyes were as wide as watermelons. He obviously wasn't happy with being a son of Mars but seemed more in shock about my eyes, "Your eyes! They're solid gold! There are no whites!"

I smirked and swiped at Mars who in turn blocked with his greatsword. I attacked again and skill with a scythe seemed to come natural to me. However my muscles strained in protest at the different style of fighting and I guessed that it wasn't my usual weapon of choice. I quickly turned it into a trident and lunged at Mars who deftly span away. I flew past him a few meter before turning back to him.

He raised his sword and ball of red energy charged up at the end. My eyes widened as that was the one thing I least expected him to do. I swiftly stabbed my trident forward into air and a ball of golden energy charged up on the tip of the centre spike. Suddenly the energy balls exploded towards each other and met in the middle while we kept charging them up. It looked like some kind of fight scene out of Harry Potter. My ball of energy was pushing towards him but I could feel my energy fading and I knew I couldn't keep this up for much longer. With one final scream I pushed the energy all the way to Mars and he screamed out in pain. Suddenly he collapsed to the ground as I released the energy; feeling as if I had just run a marathon around the world a hundred times.

I stumbled over to him, drawing energy from the godly-grade weapon. Each time I brought the butt of the trident down to the ground a ripple of seismic energy shot outwards but I did not care as I used it like a walking cane. The trident was similar to my father's one in so many ways and the only two weapons more powerful were Jupiter's master bolt and Neptune's trident. I guess the Helm of Darkness doesn't count as a weapon. While Jupiter's lightning bolt had the most explosive power over a large area, my father's trident could kill anything if it so much as sinks a quarter of an inch into it and almost no armor was tough enough to stop it.

I held the three points of the trident to his neck and snarled, "Yield?"

In response he spat in my face. That angered me and I gave him one long cut down the face with a sharp trident spike. He cried out as if it cause more pain than it should. Something in the back of my mind told me that it shouldn't be able to do that anymore.

"I yield! I yield! Please have mercy! Don't make me fade! Please!" He cried out in desperation and I was confused when he said that I could make him fade.

"What do you mean fade?" I questioned threateningly.

"T-th-that weapon, can make g-gods fade!" He stuttered out terrified.

"Swear by the goddess Styx you won't tell anyone else that or I will make you fade!" I was a bit scared that with such great power Jupiter would blast me to pieces.

"I swear on the river Styx to the above!" He screamed.

"The goddess! She deserves honor yet you Olympians treat her as nothing more than a river and ignore the punishments for not keeping to the oath! The oath of the goddess is much more binding and forces you into punishment if you choose to act against the oath!" I bellowed at his lack of respect for the goddess.

"I swear by the goddess Styx not to tell anyone else what that weapon can do!" He cried out with desperation. I could see tears trickling down his cheeks. Thunder louder than the usual oath of Styx boomed and I grinned sadistically; making him shrink in fear.

"Good now car keys?" I held out a hand as he got up. He fished out a ring a tossed it to me.

I narrowed my eyes at him and he panicked saying, "Place it on the ground and a car will appear! Goodbye I have to clean up my face before my 'date' with Venus."

I once again leveled my trident at his throat and he gulped, "One more thing... Swear by the goddess Styx that you will dump Vulcan and Hephaestus's wife; Aphrodite and Venus today, and never have physical or romantic relations with her again."

He had the nerve to retort, "You expect me to dump the most beautiful woman in the world and never have sex with the goddess who practically throws herself at every man she sees? You must be bloody mad to think I would dump my girlfriend."

"Your girlfriend has a husband." The side of me I inherited from my adoptive mother shined though a little.

"Never in a million years would I dump her. That's what makes her such an interesting girlfriend to have!" I jabbed his throat a little drawing a small amount of ichor that made him yelp again. It got the point across because he quickly swore the oath before rushing to his Harley Davidson and speeding off at what sounded like was past the speed of sound.

I turned back to Hazel and Frank to find them staring with shock. They both looked terrified as I put the trident away. "What are my eyes like now?"

Frank hesitantly responded, "No longer solid gold but your eyes are no longer sea green. The irises are gold colored; like Hazels, only a much richer tone of gold." I nodded before placing the ring on the ground and imagining a four door Lexus SUV. Sure enough: there it was. I didn't bother trying to pick the lock as I ripped the door clean off and clambered in the fresh smelling space. To my surprise after a couple seconds the door appeared back on it's hinges and fully repaired from the several dents I gave it by throwing it like a discus. The other two got in, in a more civillized manner but they still seemed a bit wary.

"Don't worry I promise not to hurt you guys." I reassured them, not that it helped. Suddenly I heard shouting from Caldecotte tunnel a few yards back.

"Jackson! I'm going to kill you!" Reyna screamed as she ran out of the tunnel holding a mace. The funny thing was the shape of it. It was the shape of a certain part of the male anatomy but she didn't seem to realize it, "You told this guards I was whore!"

I pulled found a portable camera on the dashboard and used it to snap a shot of Reyna holding the phallus shaped mace. Giggling I flipped her the bird and drove off with an angry praetor screaming abuse.

"Why are you giggling so much?" Hazel asked.

"Nothing. Just the fact that I just took a photo of Reyna holding a phallus shaped mace like I predicted earlier." I said and Frank's eyes widened as he gave me a high five. 


	12. 12: Doughnut Stop Goes Wrong

(AN Sorry. I know I promised to get this and The Son of Zeus c4 rewrite update out by Monday but I had a mental breakdown on Sunday and I had parents evening on Monday and finally piles of homework up to now. Sorry. I have not abandoned this, the school term simply slows me down. Christmas holidays are soon so I will get lots out then. Again, I am British so my knowledge on American stuff is rather sloppy but unlike some authors I do try. /AN

Chapter 12: Doughnuts

Hazel's POV

I'm not going to lie; the ride was boring. We sat in our car on our way towards our first stop — San Francisco… That was when I realized something… None of us knew where the 'cursed mountain' was. Frank and I both arrived after the Battle of Mount Othrys and Percy had no memories. Everyone at camp simply referred to the mountain as Othrys and never actually stated its real name. I seriously doubted they took a ship all the way to Greece after all the Titans too moved with the flame of Olympus.

"Uh, Percy… Have you got any idea where we're going?" Frank asked the question for me.

Percy just shrugged, "Instinct."

"Great…" I muttered quietly, much to Percy's annoyance.

"Look. You've never been there before, so unless you have a better idea than following me and hoping I recognize something just shut up. We can't go back without the quest completed unless you want to be taunted and you would be held responsible for the eventual raping of virgin goddess by a Titan." Percy snapped with a serious demeanor.

Frank had spent the most part of the journey grumbling about how his father was Mars and how he was nothing like those idiots. I have to say I agree with him. Perhaps Apollo and Mars got their children mixed up… because I'm pretty sure I have met more than one overly aggressive Apollo kid. Not to mention Frank is good with a bow… but useless with a sword or spear… or anything not a bow.

As I thought about weapons my hand drifted to my spatha sword. Everyone always wondered why I chose a cavalry sword over the typical gladius and to be honest I don't really know. I've always been more interested in Roman cavalry than infantry but unfortunately New Rome chooses not to have one. Funny considering I'm a child of Pluto and horses are technically Neptune's domain so I should be scared of them. Even Jason doesn't seem scared of them but he refuses to step one foot near the sea.

I heard Percy curse in some foreign language — probably ancient Greek if what Zoe and Juno said was true — and a beeping noise rang through the car.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Oh nothing, we're coming up to a gas station so we'll be fine." He muttered.

Sure enough a gas station slowly came into sight. It was called, 'Monster Doughnuts and Gas!'

Weird name made even more strange by the cartoony depiction of a cyclops eating a doughnut and holding a gas can. I did not even want to know how they got such an accurate cartoon representation of what a cyclops looked like. Percy seemed a little worried but he looked to have stilled his nerves and simply did not care.

It was your typical gas and diner joint and you wouldn't suspect anything at a glance. Percy pulled into a gas hose post and hopped out of the car. I honestly wondered why the gods would give us a car without a magic gas tank or something.

Percy poked his head into the car, "Hey guys, do you want to head on in and get a seat or something?"

I shrugged before jumping out of the Lexus and walking into the doughnut store. The first thing that hit me and Frank was just how clean it was. Everything looked like it was polished a thousand times over until it gleamed like the surface of a freshly cut diamond. Even the windows looked to be made out of crystal. I looked at Frank to see him drooling… typical, the guy sees food and is… wait he's not drooling over the food…

Behind the counter were a bunch of _seriously_ beautiful women preparing food and serving people. It was at that moment that I looked at everyone to see them all staring at us as if we were fresh meat… odd. I snapped out of it and dragged Frank to a table and we sat down.

Percy walked into the diner and looked awkward and uncomfortable from all the stares he was getting. The customers were outright glaring at him with a ferocious intensity that made me wonder what their problem was with him. He just gave an awkward wave and smile before walking over to us and plopping himself down in a seat across from me. He paid the still glaring people no mind as his nervous eyes scanned over the menu over and over but not seeming to settle on any.

A waitress strolled up to us and Frank was downright floored while Percy just sat there as if nothing was happening.

"May I take your orders?" She said in a seductive manner that had Frank fawning and drooling. I rolled my eyes at this; muttering about boys. The waitress looked outright offended when Percy glanced at her and didn't care.

"I'll have a 'Blackjack's Special' please." Percy ordered without looking at the waitress. The waitress widened her eyes before calling something out in… Greek?

She bowed to Percy before saying, "I apologize lord Kronos for my attempts to charm-speak you and your companions. Your order will arrive shortly."

Percy's eyes glowed gold and a bimetal scythe with a blade coated edged with silver appeared next to him before flickering away. Frank gasped and shrank back in fear while I just smiled knowingly. Percy frowned and stated as if it were a question, "Lord Kronos?"

The monster looked confused, "Yes… Last time you visited one of our joints you made a whole show of how our lord was back and you made an order specifically for your Pegasus 'Blackjack' of a hundred doughnuts…"

Percy looked confused but just shrugged and was about to say something — probably how he wasn't Saturn — but I quickly interrupted, "That will be fine, thank you!"

The now identified monster bowed to us and walked off. The rest of the monsters were staring at us but not in a disgusted way, but instead they stared more out of respect. Percy got a hint of my game and nodded before glaring at the monsters, "What? Stop staring!"

The monsters immediately looked away but Frank was still curled up in the corner in fear. Percy said nothing as I leaned over to Frank and whispered, "He's not Saturn. I'll explain later but he cannot know yet."

Frank looked at me as if trying to find any source of doubt or untruth in my words but appeared to find none as he relaxed minutely but visibly. I looked back at Percy and he nodded; acknowledging me but nothing more. Something about his state of face told me the he was trying hard to make an example and that if he weren't he would probably crack an extremely inappropriate joke. The facial expression he wore was one I had seen on many people who had become centurions and even on Jason's face once in a while when he wasn't being an arrogant ass. He was trying hard to stay disciplined despite the fact that that is against his nature; being a son of Neptune. I must say he did a very good job of it.

That was when a woman who seemed to literally radiate beauty walked in. Her eyes were a kaleidoscope of colors that kept changing. Her seemingly soft hair too flickered between one color to another as if she couldn't decide her appearance. She rudely pushed me up into the seat against the wall so that I was facing Frank while she sat across from Percy. I knew immediately who she was so I bit my tongue and held my anger in.

I looked around to see all the monsters either staring at her lustfully or glaring at her with such intensity that it could melt a brick. The woman gave them all a flirtatious wink that made some of the monsters melt into a drooling mess. Looking at Frank I saw that he was again floored while Percy was somehow able to resist the charms of the goddess.

I inclined my head to her slightly out of respect, "Lady Venus."

She gave me a sweet smile before glaring at Percy murderously. "Hello Perseus."

Percy just nodded his head, "Lady Aph— Venus. May I ask, why are you here?"

She raised an eyebrow and her expression lightened slightly. "To you I have always been lady Aphrodite… that is what you were going to say instinctively… am I correct?"

Percy looked confused. "Very well lady Aphrodite, Now why are you here?"

Her expression hardened again, "I'm not happy about the oath you made my boyfriend swear."

Percy rolled his eyes, "If I am correct he is no longer you boyfriend… Plus, you are married."

Aphrodite's expression softened yet again as if she didn't know whether to be angry with him or happy. "Yes… I guess you are right about that. I have always been meaning to break up with him but being the goddess of love it makes it impossible for me to break up with someone… after all, that is the opposite of love. I'm like Hera but less strict. She would never break up with Zeus no matter how much she may want to but she would also never cheat on him… Well at least not in any way he could know about it. Mind you, the story of Ixion is never truly told by mortals. Zeus merely covered it up. When he took pity on Ixion and brought him to Olympus, Hera became lustful for him — don't ask me how that is possible with such a revolting man — and they started flirting at the dinner table. Zeus saw these subtle gestures and ordered Ixion to stop and so he obeyed. Hera realized what she was doing and felt disgusted and begged Zeus for forgiveness later that night when he was threatening her with a fate similar to that of his late wife Metis. To test how far it would have gone he replicated Hera with the exact same state of mind as she had at the table and created a nymph — Nephele — and sent the nymph in. From there Ixion made love to the fake-Hera and was banished to Tartarus to forever sustain punishment on a flaming wheel to represent his burning lust. Hera was punished with ten a century cut off from the outside world as she mulled over her actions in solitude in a prison of her own mind. When she came back… lets just say she was less than pleased by her husbands hypocrisy in fathering exactly one-thousand demigods. Half of them were children of royalty who he tricked into thinking that he was their husband. Zeus had the part of where Hera felt lustful to Ixion covered up and it never made it into mortal stories. We never knew what happened with the original Jason but all we know is that Zeus was suspicious. Jason was Hera's favorite mortal and there was quite possibly something between them. All I know is she became grouchy when Jason fell for Medea and then went all Artemis on his ass when he betrayed her."

I was surprised with the true story of Ixion but Percy tunnel visioned on his original question, "Why are you here?"

Aphrodite rolled her eyes. "Always straight to the point, huh? You see Percy, I wanted to talk to you about something. Tell me… what is the real reason you're on this quest?"

Percy frowned, "To save Lady Diana of course."

Aphrodite giggled, "Oh how so oblivious you always were. Are you sure there isn't a certain huntress on your mind?"

Percy rubbed the back of his neck and got a glassy look in his eyes as if he was trying to remember something but couldn't. "You've given me this conversation before… haven't you?"

Aphrodite grinned, "Aye, I have. In that exact car that Ares gave you on a quest to save the same goddess."

I remembered how the car could change shape into any vehicle we wanted. I shivered at the thought of what Venus and Mars might have done in there. All the sudden I felt like I wanted to go by foot instead of in the car. The empousa waitress came back with ten boxes of ten sugary doughnuts and laid them in the middle of the table.

Aphrodite eyed the boxes in disgust, "Seriously Percy? Handsome guy like you going to throw it all away with doughnuts? Man, I thought of you better than to cheat on Zoë with something as crude as sugary bagels."

With that she took nine of the boxes and flashed them away before Percy could protest. She then opened up the last box and plucked a doughnut out for herself as Percy glared at her. Percy grabbed a doughnut and ate without hesitation but Frank and I eyed them warily because of who had prepared them.

The goddess noticed our discomfort. "Oh don't worry, this branch of doughnuts is the best out there. The only people they attack are demigods. But you're with Percy and they think he is their lord Saturn so they will not attack."

I risked it and took her word for it. The doughnut really was delicious; it was heaven sugarcoated.

Then Aphrodite's words hit Percy, "Wait… There's nothing between me and Zoë! We're just friends!"

Aphrodite wiggled her eyebrows, "Sure, you keep telling yourself that." She then pulled a necklace with ' _Percy + ? Forever_ ' engraved into a silver dog-tag out and handed it to Percy who looked down confusedly at the '?' that substituted a name. He wisely chose not to defy the goddess and slipped the silver chain necklace around his neck where it hung limply alongside his bead necklace.

Then Aphrodite said, "Percy I'm going to change your eyes back to your true appearance, when you get back to camp Jupiter they will revert to sea-green to hide your true nature. Actually… I got something that might make them like you a little more…"

She leant over and poked him in the eyes causing him to yelp in pain and surprise as he shut them closed. When he opened his eyes the irises were a much harsher and richer shade of gold than mine. Frank gasped and Percy gave him an incredulous look until Aphrodite handed him a mirror. His eyes widened when he saw the gold color that gleamed. He seemed to change appearance briefly and his tan skin turned more olive in color and his composure grew confident and regal as if he were a praetor or even a consul. The expression on his face turned stern and even more disciplined like a Roman officer trying to set an example. Briefly, his eyes flickered to a deep ocean blue color like that of most children of Neptune before mixing into the gold and tuning into a swirl of ocean blue and rich gold.

He looked at Venus curiously and she giggled happily and excitedly as she said simply, "It's still you… Just more Roman."

Percy looked back down into the mirror as I gazed at his eyes. I couldn't help but feel myself getting lost in the beautiful swirl of blue and gold that resembled a whirlpool. When first I saw him I thought he had the looks of a god; now he really was a god — Roman even. I mentally slapped myself as I had made a promise to myself not to fall for another boy. When Frank and I looked back to the seat next to me we found that it was now unoccupied.

Percy just nibbled at his doughnut as if the transformation had made him lose his appetite. Looking over at Frank we made a mental agreement to get moving and we pulled Percy out of the monster doughnut shop. I figured that if he was believed to be their lord then we wouldn't have to pay for the food.

I slumped into the driver's seat as Frank took the passenger seat.

Percy yawned and stated, "With great power… comes great need to take a nap."

And with that he collapsed into the back seat and immediately began to snore. I poked him a couple times just to make sure he was really out before turning to Frank, "All right Frank, I'm guessing you have questions about Percy, correct?"


	13. 13: Familiar Faces are Everywhere

Chapter 13: Familiar Faces are Everywhere!

Perseus's POV

I woke up some time after the car had pulled over. I wanted to snuggle further into the leather backseat I knew I had a job to do. Sitting up slowly, I rubbed my eyes and groaned. Looking around the cramped car I could see Hazel and Frank passed out in the front seats with the seats reclined as far as they could go.

Out of the window it was dark. The moon was nowhere to be seen from what I could tell from my connection to the sea, the tides were non existent. Whether or not the mist can cover such a big thing I have no idea. As far as the eye could see it was oddly pitch black. No street lights were on in this road which was strange in such a big city as San Francisco.

Deciding not to disturb Frank and Hazel, I quietly opened the car door and clambered my way out. Shutting the door as silently as possible, I walked away from the car. Oddly enough it was only this street that was in lack of any light.

I turned right and walked right into a guy. Being the strong guy I am, he fell right on his backside while I barely stumbled. "Oh geez, sorry, didn't mean to walk into you mister… do I know you?"

When I looked at him he looked rather familiar but just escaped off the top of my mind. He had brown eyes, blond hair and looked to be rather athletic. He looked really distraught, confused and sad. "No, it was totally mine own fault… wait… Percy? What are you doing here? Last I heard they made you Polemarchos at camp after… after my daughter betrayed you…"

"Huh? Look…"

"—Frederick—"

"Look Fred—"

"—Frederick not Fred—"

I rolled my eyes, "Look Frederick, I kinda got hit with a bad case of amnesia and… I remember nothing…"

He nodded before his face contorted in confusion, "Sorry Percy, I just got a mental message from Athena… I'm not to tell you anything of your past."

"Uh… Athena… You mean Minerva right?" I asked and he took a step forward and looked at me closer.

"You've changed you look… More… Italian I guess? Plus I thought your eyes were… green not gold and blue?" He looked confused.

"Oh yea Venus changed my appearance so I would look less Greek and more… Roman I guess?"

"Why are you calling… oh never mind… I have to go now, see you some time later Percy." He said with a slightly dejected look and walking off. I raised an eyebrow in confusion but said nothing as he walked off into the distance.

My hand went into my pocket and pulled out a packet of ambrosia. Feeling slightly hungry, I pulled it open and stuffed the cracker in my mouth. I sighed in relief at the cookie-like taste it had. Energy coursed through my veins and I looked around.

Then I heard a scream which sounded a lot like Hazel and I immediately summoned my trident to hand. "Percy, help please!" I heard the voice call.

I sprinted in the direction of Hazel's voice and looked around…

"HAZEL!" I called.

"Percy, please!" I heard again and the voice led me into a dark alley. Holding my trident at ready, I walked into the alley.

"Well, what have we got here? The _oh so great_ Percy Jackson? Atlas has told me a lot about you." Someone behind me spoke.

"Oh yea? What did he say?" I asked without turning to face the person.

"Just how you aren't who you claim to be. He told me all about you Greeks. How you like to deceive people, how you trick people into thinking that you're such a nice guy, but then you turn on them and you're just as bad as the Ouranos. You may have defeated the Titans but you won't defeat what is to come next. Not even my lord Atlas wants this but I on the other hand… have no problem with it." The guy said.

I turned to face him, "And what would that be?"

"Oh Percy… It's such a shame you wouldn't join our side. I have always had quite a soft spot for you, too bad I could never get over Luke, that turn-cloak is so confusing. One minute he's with us the next he's with you… he's dead now; because of you. I am the daughter of Athena, do you think I would be stupid enough to let that idiot say what is to come? No, that would… ruin the element of surprise." A girl stepped out of the shadows behind me. I whirled around once again to see a blonde haired girl with stormy gray eyes that peered into the soul. Just like that guy Fred she seemed rather familiar but I still could not grasp where I had seen her.

"Who are you? Minerva does not have children!" I sternly said but in the back of my mind something was telling me that wasn't strictly true.

The girl looked hurt, "You don't remember me Percy? Its been, what? Two months? You've already forgotten me? I must say that does hurt."

She took a step closer to me and I got a better look at her. Her hair had princess curls in it and she had a sort cruel but beautiful glow about her. In the back of my mind, Greek me screamed at me that she had changed in some way. She had a flirtatious edge to her but Greek me also seemed to tell me that wasn't what she's usually like.

"Join us Percy. I know you like me. You always did." She took another step closer and planted a quick kiss on my cheek before stepping back with a smug smirk on her face.

My face was stern and I shook my head and raised my trident again. "I don't know who you are but by the sounds of it, you're traitors."

Cyclopes stepped out of the shadows behind the girl and a hellhound appeared behind the boy. The girl drew a pair of knives while the guy drew a sword and said, "Have it your way, Jackson."

They both lunged and I had trouble keeping up with them both at the same time in the narrow expanse of the alley. Luckily the trident also had a pointed butt so I could use both sides to try and impale them. The edge of the trident nicked the girl's arm and she screamed out in pain as if much more happened than a slight cut. The guy behind me lunged to stab me at that point and I drove the spiked butt right through him. He looked down in surprise as he screamed before he pushed the trident out of him and pulled an amulet out and both he and the girl disappeared into thin air. Cursing, I realized that he must have been one of Mark's lackeys.

But the monsters remained — if anything they had increased in numbers. I took a second to think before hurling the trident at the hellhound at the entrance to the alley — effectively vaporizing it — before charging out of the alley. Instinctively, I lifted my hand and the trident flew back into it as I ran by. Power coursed through my fingertips as I held the godly-grade weapon.

Sadly the hellhound wasn't the only thing outside the alley. It looked as if every monster in the state of California had congregated right here in the last minute I was in that alley. This was not going to be pretty. I tugged on my necklace to summon everything but my spear and shield as I already had a self-balancing trident in my hand. The trident rebalanced and weighted itself so that it felt as if I were holding a Greek spear.

I would like to say that I struggled though every step and stab but really my mind went into autopilot. Within seconds I had managed to whip up a hurricane and I was stabbing and killing every monster within three feet of me. Laistrygonian giants lingered at the back, launching celestial bronze balls at me but they only got picked up by the high speeds of my hurricane. The hurricane itself was killing tons of monsters and I knew this was won. I saw Frank and Hazel behind them going unnoticed as all the monster were focused on me. They had their mouths gaping in shock and awe as I weaved my way through the army of monsters.

Behind me I heard a loud hunting horn was blown but paid it no heed as I tunnel visioned on getting back to my friends. A girl was screaming orders and silver arrows imbedded themselves into the monsters. With a scream I let out huge burst of energy and I could see a massive glow of golden energy around me before all of the monsters froze to a halt. The ground shook slightly and my friends yelped as they looked around a corner down another street. Again the ground shook and it continuously thudded as if someone heavy were walking…

I looked behind me to see a group of girls wearing silver and holding bows or hunting knives glaring at me. Spinning around again I saw Hazel and Frank rushing through the frozen monsters towards me. By now I had to drop the hurricane because the heavy use of my powers was really wearing on me. The ground continued to shake and it seemed like whatever was causing it was getting closer.

Then the end of a gigantic spear was seen peeking around the corner of block. Stepping forward was one of the most terrifying sight I had ever seen. A gigantic dragon-like leg stepped forward and thudded against the ground and a giant came into sight. It was a gigante.

"RUN!" I screamed and both Frank and Hazel obeyed without hesitation. We pushed through the crowd of frozen monsters towards the archer girls who were stuck in terror. I tugged on the necklace to lighten the load while running and when I reached the other end I screamed at yet _another_ familiar-faced girl, "You heard me, RUN!"

Without hesitation she turned to her group and screamed to run. Her eyes were widened in surprise and confusion when she saw my face but she hadn't said anything. I released my hold on the monsters to conserve my energy and they saw the gigante so they immediately bowed but the giant bellowed at them, "Don't bow you idiots! GET THEM!"

The monsters looked at us before charging. We sprinted to the end of the block where the girls turned left while we split away and turned right. When we had run a decent distance away, Hazel tossed a ring on the ground and it expanded into our car. Hopping into the drivers seat, I gave Frank and Hazel a second to climb in before flooring the accelerator and leaving the monsters in the dust just as they had begun to gain on us.

"What the hell was that?" Frank exclaimed and I looked at him with terror written on my face.

"Enceladus, the only smart gigante and the bane of Minerva. That must have been what she meant… βλάκας! I should have known. Atlas would do anything but join the gigantes! When Gaia created the it meant that she had given up on the Titans. The Titans always were jealous of her favor of the giants over them some of them would rather fight with the gods than the giants; some of them don't care while others would join them; namely Coeus, Crius, Sun and Persaeus. Prometheus will just choose whatever side he thinks will win."

(AN Coeus is Roman Koios. Crius is Roman Krios. Sun is Roman Hyperion. Persaeus is Roman Perses. Remember Aphrodite gave Percy a Roman form. In this form he will use Roman names more. /AN)

"What does _vlákas_ mean?" Hazel asked.

"Huh? Oh it means 'fool' in Greek. The thing is Atlas, Saturn and Ocean all wanted supreme power for the Titans only… although I think Atlas is more interested in his own freedom at this point in time than power… You know I think we could strike a deal…" I suddenly had an idea.

"Are you crazy? We're still talking about Atlas right?" Frank asked.

"No, I'm not crazy. Atlas wants freedom. How about we talk to the Olympians about giving him free—"

"It's official! Percy's lost his mind!" Frank retorted.

"No, let me finish. We talk to lady Diana about getting Atlas his freedom on the condition that he swears loyalty to Olympus on the name of the creation void Chaos itself." Thunder boomed as I said that.

"What would that do?" Hazel asked.

"An oath on the creation void is the most powerful thing in the world. Jupiter chained Juno above the void in punishment after she caused a rebellion against Jupiter. To say Juno was terrified would be an understatement. The creation void destroys anything that comes into contact with it. It eats away at the immortal soul all beings have. Were an immortal to fall into it or to break an oath sworn on it they would be obliterated and their soul would be destroyed; they wouldn't even get to the realm of the faded! Vulcan eventually took pity on Juno and cut her down to rescue her and she swore never to despise him again for his bad looks and whatnot. Sound good to you?" I knew I had won this argument then my face turned aghast, "Oh gods, I'm must have spent too long with Minerva before I lost my memory!"

They both laughed.


	14. Author's Note on lack of updates

**AUTHORS NOTE: ABOUT MY TARDINESS WITH UPDATES**

Hello. As you may or may not have noticed I haven't been updating my story for a very long time. Recently I have been looking to try and make a return but school is pressing extremely hard so I doubt I will find much time this year (my most important school year). If I do find time, I will most definitely try to update, but I have also been considering a rewrite. As some people have pointed out to me, the plot and story is good, but my writing quality and the way with which I am playing the story out is rather poor (compared to what it could be) so if I do get the time I may choose to rewrite the story. However, last year I could not find much time so this year I doubt I will either. Once my exams are over, I will definitely try to make a come-back. Also if you have looked at my profile, you might notice a story or two will be taken down after this note. I originally had 12(?) stories up. Like I have promised I will never abandon any of my stories, but I have taken many of them down (for the time being) due to the lack of motivation I had and the enormous pressure of trying to keep 12 stories updated at once. At the time that this was written I had 4 stories up but I may remove 1 or 2. All stories which I previously had up will be written... someday... except for 1 story which I condemned due to... reasons. The two stories I will definitely keep are [Percy Jackson: Son of Zeus] and [The Second Chance] (may be renamed).

 **Sorry for my tardiness with updates.**

 **And sorry if you were excited, thinking this was going to be a new update.**

For those who are interested in what exams I am taking, I am taking the standard British GCSEs but I have also opted to take American ACT exams.

Also, please note this was taken from a PM I was writing but then I decided to place it as an Author's note so a couple of things in this note may be out of context that I missed.


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